Noted

Noted

Garnered: Over 2.03 lakh bookings by Tata Nano, deliveries of which will begin in July. At Rs 95,000 per car booked for the base model, plus the 6.1 lakh booking forms sold at Rs 300 each, Tata Motors has garnered around Rs 2,500 crore from the launch exercise.

Noted

<strong>Appointed:</strong> Naina Lal Kidwai, who was until now the CEO of HSBC in India, as the country head and chairperson of all HSBC Group companies in India.

Bagged, appointed, failed and voted!

Ratan Tata is voted as &lsquo;India Inc.&rsquo;s Most Powerful CEO&rsquo; by The Economic Times Corporate Dossier&rsquo;s Most Powerful CEOs Survey.

Google

Signed a deal between Sony and Google for making half a million copyright-free books available for Sony&rsquo;s Reader device, a rival to the Amazon Kindle.

Revamped, launched...

Work and processes by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the external auditor of Satyam Computer Services, by setting up a new advisory board and appointing a new quality assurance and risk management head.

'œDamage to global liquidity is $18 trillion'?

Hemant Mishr, Head (Global Markets, India), Standard Chartered Bank, spoke to BT&rsquo;s Puja Mehra on the liquidity crunch and the high lending rates.

Domestic air travel nose dives

A quick look at the latest Airports Authority of India (AAI) data for India&rsquo;s top 10 airports shows that air traffic in the first nine months of the 2008-09 fiscal has dropped sharply.

Ranked

Ranked: Mukesh Ambani, CEO of Reliance Industries, as the third richest CEO by Forbes magazine, in a list of 10 wealthiest CEOs.

Hiked

Hiked: By India&rsquo;s leading car maker Maruti Suzuki, the prices of popular A-Star, Swift, DZire and SX4 models, due to increased input costs and the appreciation of the Japanese yen vis-&agrave;-vis the Indian rupee. The price hikes range between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000. However, the company has left the prices of M800, Omni, Alto, WagonR, Zen Estilo, Gypsy, Versa and Grand Vitara untouched.

Formed

By the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a task force on corporate governance to be headed by former Cabinet Secretary and India&rsquo;s Ambassador to the US, Naresh Chandra. The task force would look at issues emerging out of the Satyam episode and make its recommendations.

Gadgets, gizmos & girls

Women are being wooed by the makers of tech toys like never before.

Recognised

<strong>Recognised:</strong> Infosys, as one among the top 20 global companies in the prestigious &ldquo;Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises&rdquo; (MAKE) study, 2008.

Stimulus package II

Another stimulus from the government, which doesn&rsquo;t seem enough.<br />

Noted

<strong>Demerged:</strong> By Ahmedabad-based textiles conglomerate Arvind, its branded apparel and retail businesses into two separate companies as part of its plan to raise funds later. Both the demerged companies will become subsidiaries of the company. Arvind&rsquo;s branded apparel business will be merged with Arvind Lifestyle Brands and its discount store chain Mega Mart with Arvind Retail. The demeger will come into effect from April 2009.

Ranked

Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of $20.8 billion, is the richest Indian in the world. Ambani has displaced Lakshmi Mittal, according to a list of the nation&rsquo;s 40 richest people compiled by the Forbes.

Noted

By SEBI, norms to set up dedicated stock exchanges for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Such exchanges will be corporate entities and will have to de-mutualise within two years, according to the new norms.<br />

Just launched

Audi&rsquo;s R8 might cost A pretty penny at Rs 1.17 crore, have a ground clearance that would bottom out on 95 per cent of India&rsquo;s roads and look like something from Doctor Who, but God, it&rsquo;s fun to drive.

Indian CEOs will be global leaders?

Appointed

Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies, as head of an expert panel to review the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) plan to extend a pension package to the private sector. The group is expected to submit its report soon.

Ranked

SBI, which has assets of over Rs 7 lakh crore, 57th in the list of the world&rsquo;s Top 1,000 banks this year, by the UKbased banking publication The Banker. SBI was ranked 70th last year.

Noted

Approved: By the board of approvals chaired by Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai, 27 proposals for special economic zones (SEZs), including those by Larsen &amp; Toubro, JSW Bengal Steel, Ansal Properties &amp; Infrastructure and Bharat Forge. It also gave in-principle approvals to 10 tax-free zones.