Following pressure from the National Housing Bank (NHB), housing finance companies (HFCs) may revise interest rates in the coming days. Revised interest rates for a loan of less than Rs 20 lakh are expected to be announced on January 1, 2009 by various institutional lenders.

NHB CMD, S Sridhar said, "As we have reduced the rates, we also expect HFCs to reduce rates and pass on the benefits to the end-customers. Many housing finance companies have already reduced rates by 50-75 basis points. I expect them to cut rates further."

The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications has launched nationwide GSM services from December 31. The company is already operating almost all telecom circles with its CDMA services. The company would cover 11,000 towns and 3.40 lakh villages across the country by investing Rs. 10,000-crore in the field of mobile telephony. Reliance Communications has received spectrum to roll out GSM services in January this year and has set a record to launch services within a record low period.

Satyam Computer Services would focus on core activities to try to restore the confidence of investors. It has asked to forget the previous developments and pledges to bring transparency in the system. The board of the company would meet on January 10, 2009 to discus all possible steps to boost the stakeholder's confidence.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), on Wednesday, announced the nation-wide launch of Interactive Personalized Television & Video Services (IPTV) for its customers.

Internet Protocol Tele Vision (IPTV) is a new revolution in the television history where service providers can utilize existing copper cable network to deliver high quality videos and sound using Internet Protocol.

With this launch, the company has enabled its customers to watch programmes according to their convenience from more than 140 TV channels.

It is time to enjoy cheep air travel as the leading domestic airlines are slashing the air fares significantly. Declining crude rates and low demand in the aviation sector is forcing the air carriers to cut air fares. Domestic air traffic declined significantly with just 30 lakh people using the air services in November.

After celebrating Christmas in London, ace Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty has flown all the way to Spain to welcome the New Year with her family members and boyfriend Raj Kundra.

The leggy lass recently recuperated from her foot injury and headed to Spain for New Year’s bash.

Doctors have advised Shilpa to take complete rest for a few days until the injury is completely healed.

It is known that Shilpa was supposed to shoot for her first international project ‘Desire’, which got late due to her injury.