India's central bank cut interest rates for the first time in nine months Tuesday and lowered the amount of cash banks must keep in reserve as it looks to boost investment and kickstart the flagging economy.

India's central bank is expected to cut interest rates this week for the first time in nine months in response to the government's recent economic reform spree and slowing inflation, economists say.

Working out of a tiny rented room furnished with a wooden table, small biometric authentication machine and shelf stacked with passbooks, Ganesh Dangi is a one-man bank for a village of 650 people in northwestern India's desert state of Rajasthan.

Indian inflation eased marginally in December to 7.18 percent year-on-year, data showed Monday, raising expectations of an interest rate cut when the country's central bank meets later this month.

nish phone giant Nokia said Tuesday Indian tax authorities had visited a manufacturing unit in the southern Indian city of Chennai, without giving further details.

India's tea-to-software conglomerate Tata Group plans to invest more than US$8 billion over the next two years, its newly appointed chairman Cyrus Mistry said in an internal email to staff on Wednesday.

ia's stock market regulator is considering a plan that would see small investors reimbursed if they lose money buying newly issued shares in a bid to boost confidence in IPOs, a report said Thursday.

Some of India's auto giants reported on Tuesday a modest increase and some a drop in sales of new cars for the month of December, despite recent festive discounts and new models launched.

India on Tuesday began direct cash payments to an estimated 200,000 poor people in the first phase of an ambitious plan aimed to include millions of citizens, officials said.

India's troubled Kingfisher Airlines has lost its permit to fly after a deadline to renew its suspended license expired, the national aviation regulator said on Tuesday.