SBI selling of pledged 2% of United Spirits shares worth Rs 100 crore is a first step towards recovering Rs7,000 crore loans that held as security in the market last week, source familiar with matter cited.

Challenging SBI’s move, Liquor baron Vijay Mallya has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, seeks a stay on sale of shares of its subsidiary USL, source said.

SBI will issue loan-recall notice to Kingfisher as soon as possible, source said, but the consortium plans to first sell the pledged, which are currently worth about Rs500 crore.

The hearing of the matter is expected to be hold tomorrow in the court.

Meanwhile, a big jolt put for Mallya’s plans of reviving the airline as well as completing the stake sale in USL to Diageo.

The act of selling shares worth Rs 100 crore was triggered by SBI last week, which raised Mallya’s fear of hamper the USL-Diageo deal, for which he today announced an open offer for 26 per cent stake exchange, which began on March 25, source added.

SBI is the major lender having exposure over Rs1,800 crore, though consortium last month decided to recall the loans to Kingfisher by selling a portion of the collaterals with them which include some of Mallya’s real estate in Mumbai, a villa in Goa and two helicopters, apart from United Spirits shares and the airline brand.

With including VAT, petrol is now cheaper by over Rs 2/litre in city and  effective midnight of Monday.

Beside this, the relief has also raised on the price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) with cut off Rs. 3 per cylinder.

The decision came in line with fall in international rates of crude oil from 122.74 US dollars per barrel to 119.23 US dollars a barrel in the past two weeks, Indian Oil Corporations told reporters.

However Rupee appreciation by 12 paise to Rs 54.28 against the US dollar is another reason for price reduction.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai petrol will cost Rs 74.14 per litre, Kolkata Rs 74.72 and in Chennai it will Rs 70.34 a litre.

Apart of LPG, now the customers will pay Rs 901.50 for 14.2-kg non-subsidised LPG cylinder in the national capital. The cap of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders goes to nine in a year from Sunday and the customers will have to pay market prices.

The decision, a benchmark for Intellectual property cases in India, came in an attempt to spare affordable medicines in India from a serious blow in which Multinational pharmaceutical firms are increasingly focusing on India to drive sales.

Among the chief beneficiaries of apex court’s ruling will be India’s Cipla Ltd (CIPL.NS) and Natco Pharma Ltd (NATP.NS), selling ‘generic’ Glivec around one-tenth of the price of the branded drug , source said.

“It is a historic judgement which reaffirms the position of the Indian law and in particular, provisions of Section 3 D which mandates the need for a substantive innovation while deciding on a case for grant of a fresh patent,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters.

Novartis India Ltd. claimed to file patents and also continue to invest there.

Since 2006, the firm was fighting a legal battle for a patent for Glivec which bans under laws. However the court refused protection for Glivec on the grounds that not satisfy a patent’s “novelty” requirement as not a new medicine, but an amended version of a known compound.

Meanwhile, for poor patients use Glivec whose one month dose costs Rs 1.2 lakh, this will help to have get generic drugs priced at Rs 8,000.

The tax officials of I-T department had on March 21 asked Nokia to submit the amount of 20.8 billion rupees within a week’s time, sources said.

Nokia confirmed the notice receiving reports, but not commented on amount.

The company had filed the petition for challenging the order, said to be in “full compliance” with laws related to this matter, reports said.

However, Delhi High Court has issued an interim stay on the demand.

Nokia arrived in India in the mid-1990s, has grown, contributing to the rapid growth of the Indian economy. The company has been scrutinized by tax authorities regularly.

To respond the court, IT department is seek to file its reply very soon, stating the provisions that authorise it to issue claiming the firm have violated the tax law, source added.

In BRICS Summit meeting, Mr. Singh assured Russian President Vladimir Putin that the first phase of the nuclear power project at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu will be running by next month, reports added.

“I am pleased to inform you that Kudankulam I will become operational and critical by next month,” Mr. Singh said in meeting.

If the Unit successfully operated, India would made substantive progress on the other remaining phases of nuclear project Unit III and IV which have secured all internal approvals, as per Mr. Singh assurance to Mr. Putin.

Kudankulam atomic power plant is the joint nuclear energy programme between India and Russia at Kudankulam, near Tirunelveli in town in the southern quarters of Tamil Nadu. However TN villagers are opposed setting up of the atomic power plant whose first unit has the capacity of 1,000 mega watt.

The chief executive of AirAsia confirmed the hiring of cabin crew for its Indian venture in this year, raising employment scope for trained crew in India, especially from grounded Kingfisher Airline, source said.

AirAsia is the first foreign airline investing in Indian aviation sector after FDI reform. The proposal of Rs 81 crore was cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), allow to set up a joint venture with 49 per cent FDI in an Indian airline company.

Other partners Tata Sons and Telestra Tradeplace of Indian investor Arun Bhatia will join the company with capital ratio of 49:30:21.

The name of new airline would be AirAsia (India) Pvt. Ltd. which will operate from Chennai focusing on smaller cities in south India providing connectivity to small towns.

Now wait is for approval of the civil aviation ministry DGCA to all three partners after providing all needed information to the regulator.

However still no application have been submitted by any one, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that the flying of airline under new venture would be based on approval of company to get permit license.

On the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath Committee, the govt has decided to lowered interest rates on Public Provident Fund (PPF), five-year and 10-year National Savings Certificates (NSC) by 0.1 per cent each, reports said.

For Small savers of PPF, the rates will be 8.7 per cent from 8.8 per cent. However, National Savings Certificates (NSC) having maturity of five and 10 years will now lowered to 8.5 per cent and 8.8 per cent.

There will be no change on savings deposit schemes and on fixed deposit of Post office having maturity of one year.

Finance ministry reportedly said to come all revised rates into with effect from April 1, applicable for the entire 2013-14 fiscal.

This move is to boost the Army’s power and reportedly more than 2,000 rockets for the Pinaka multi- barrel weapons system are likely to be produced.

The decision has been taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Source said that Defense Ministry proposed to add more fire power in Army, upgrading the capabilities of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

At this time Army has needed atleast 2,000 of Pinaka launchers to equip its 10-12 regiments, reports added.

‘Pinaka’ is an area weapon system with a range of 40 km has undergone several tough tests since 1995, has already been inducted into the armed forces.

Reports further said that under the proposal, the govt has decided to invest Rs 15,000 crore in domestic military production which help to spare army from graft scams such as of foreign military hardware acquisition.