A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on Tuesday acquitted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah of charges of murder and criminal conspiracy in two cases of alleged fake encounters nearly a decade ago.

Shah had been charged with ordering the police to carry out extrajudicial killings of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi, in November 2005, and a year hence of the couple’s friend and eyewitness to the earlier encounter, Tulsi Prajapati. Shah was then the home minister in the Narendra Modi-led government in Gujarat. He had to quit as minister when he was arrested in mid-2010 but released on bail three months later.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked financial institutions to register with the American tax regulator by Thursday. Those who do not would be subject to a withholding tax of 30 per cent on all payments coming out of the United States of America.

The Reserve Bank of India has issued the same instruction. This is in line with the requirement under a new American law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca). All foreign institutions would have to provide information on whether they have any clients who would be subject to taxation under American laws. They are required to register with America’s Internal Revenue Service for this purpose. After doing so, they get a Global Intermediary Identification Number; without this, they get subject to the witholding tax.

A day after the government spent time with industry to promote its Make in India initiative, state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) announced a foray into submarine manufacturing.

Better known for its power business, BHEL has tied up with Mishra Dhatu Nigam and Hindustan Shipyard (HSL), both government-owned, to form a consortium for building submarines.

Engineering firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today said it bagged contracts worth Rs 2,521 crore in its building and factories business in both domestic as well as international markets this month.

The company's overseas subsidiary L&T Oman from the ministry of transport and communications, Sultanate of Oman, has secured an order for the construction of a new passenger terminal at Duqm Airport in Oman, a release issued here said.

More than 40 bodies have been recovered from the sea along with the debris from the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, confirmed authorities.

Navy spokesperson Manahan Simorangkir said that the warship Bung Tomo recovered 40 bodies and the number is increasing.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on Tuesday retired from test cricket, the India cricket board said on Tuesday.

BCCI in its release said, One of India's greatest Test Captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the Test Rankings MS Dhoni, has decided to retire from Test Cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of Cricket. M S Dhoni has chosen to retire from Test Cricket with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODI and T20 formats.

Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was arrested again in another case just before he was to be released following court orders. A Pakistani court had suspended his detention order, paving the way for his release yesterday.

The move had evoked a strong reaction from India.

IDBI Bank has gained around 2% to Rs 72.55 in BSE after receiving approval from its Board of Directors to divest its stake in Credit Analysis & Research (CARE).

The Bank can now sell its shareholding of 48,18,292 equity shares in CARE in part or whole, subject to compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and guidelines. The propose sale of shares would be made in one or more tranches, according to IDBI's statement to BSE.

Markets opened marginally higher with infrastructure stocks leading the gains after the government paved the way for easing the land acquisition Act for public-private partnership and rural infrastructure projects.

At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 23 points at 27,372 and the 50-share Nifty was trading 6 points lower at 8,240.

Even as the deadlock on government formation continues in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of a fractured mandate, top sources here indicated possibility of the People's Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance becoming a reality. It is believed that prime minister Narendra Modi and the BJP president Amit Shah, who have deliberated on the tough conditions set by the PDP, were positively inclined to discuss them further, to give a face-saver to the Kashmir-centric regional party.

The PDP has said amongst its conditions two -- a status quo on the Article 370 and a time-frame for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA -- were non-negotiable. At a public meeting in Srinagar, the prime minister had reminded the people early December that it was under him that the first time soldiers responsible for killing of two youths were identified and punished in such a short time, referring to nine soldiers who have been indicted for killing two youths in Budgam district on November 3. Also, it was only when he took over that the army sentenced two officers and three soldiers to life imprisonment for gunning down three unemployed Kashmiri youths and then trying to pass them off as "Pakistani militants". The case was pending since 2010.

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