Saradha scam accused and former Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh on Friday allegedly attempted suicide in Alipore Central Jail.

West Bengal Correctional Home Services Minister HA Swafi said, Kunal Ghosh allegedly tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills inside the jail.

Benchmark indices are likely to open on a volatile note amid the decline in select Asian markets which came under pressure on weak macro-data from China. Meanwhile, further decline in crude prices below the level of $80 a barrel will keep oil and gas shares in focus.

Earlier, the government on Thursday raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 a litre each to help it achieve the fiscal deficit target for this year.

The country's largest real estate player, DLF, has posted a nine per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 109 crore for the quarter ended September on the back of higher sales.

It had reported a net profit of Rs 100 crore in the same quarter the previous year.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may soon require persons acting in concert to disclose their Permanent Account Numbers. The move is part of new transparency standards to be included in the listing regulations.

Sources in the know also indicate that board will also discuss regulations for uniform disclosure of share holding pattern and annual results to prevent selective leakage of price sensitive information.

IT services major Wipro has bagged a $143 million 5-year outsourcing deal from Levi Strauss as the US-based denim apparel maker looks to cut 500 jobs in a restructuring exercise.

The restructuring, first announced in March 2014, is expected to generate net annualised cost savings of $175-200 million for Levi Strauss once fully implemented.

The doctor who conducted 83 sterilisation surgeries at the government-organised family planning camp in Pendhari area of Bilaspur, has been arrested from Chhattisgarh’s Balodabajar district.

R.K.Gupta had allegedly conducted 83 surgeries in five hours on November 8, 2014 after which, within a few hours, 12 women died and more than 60 had to be admitted to the hospital.

Oil India has dipped 3.5% to Rs 576, extending its previous day’s 2% fall on National Stock Exchange (NSE), after reporting a 33% decline in net profit at Rs 608 crore for the quarter ended September as a historic downslide in crude oil price impacted realizations. The state-owned petroleum explorer had profit of Rs 904 crore during the same quarter last fiscal.

Analysts on an average had expected net profit of Rs 861 crore for the quarter.

Markets recovered from day lows as strength in Infosys, L&T and Sun Pharma managed to cap losses in HDFC twins, TCS and Bharti Airtel. At 1045 hrs, the Sensex was down 185 points at 27,994 and the Nifty was down 13 points at 8,370.

However, the broader markets gave off their morning gains and turned flat with a positive bias. The midcap index was up 0.2% while the smallcap index was near yesterday's close.

Banking operations such as cheque clearances, cash withdrawals and deposits at public sector bank branches across the country were affected on Wednesday, as employee unions went on a nationwide strike to press for a wage revision.

The strike had no impact on private sector banks. Services at ATMs of all the banks were normal, barring a few cases where the machines ran out of cash.

Taking the war on rising non-performing assets (NPAs) and wilful defaulters a step further the markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is likely to amend its regulations on restrictions on wilful defaulters.

Sources said by way of an amendment to the Sebi Act, 1992, borrowers with a wilful defaulter tag will be barred from raising funds from the market for three years. The changes will be announced in the Sebi board meeting on November 19.

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