Employers will now be able to register online with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and get the PF code within one day. Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched the online registration system on Monday.

"Earlier, it used to take 20-25 days to get the registration done, but through this service, a firm can now be registered in just a day's time," said Tomar.

Close on the heels of a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline blast last week at Nagaram in Andhra Pradesh that claimed the lives of 20 persons, a leakage in another pipeline belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which is near the blast site, was detected triggering panic among the local people.

Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have raised petrol prices by Rs 1.69 a litre and diesel by 50 paise a litre, excluding state levies. Post the increase, non-branded petrol will cost Rs 73.25 a litre and diesel at Rs 57.78 a litre in the national capital.

The OMCs attributed the price rise to the Iraq crisis which has pushed crude oil prices up $4 a barrel in the past two weeks. “Also, the rupee-dollar exchange rate has deteriorated. The combined impact of both these factors has warranted the increase,” Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) stated.

The country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday said it plans to open branches in Australia, South Africa and Mauritius.

The city-headquartered bank has received the regulatory clearances to open the branches and will also upgrade its representative office in China, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar told reporters on the sidelines of its 20th annual general meeting here.

Several representatives of information technology (IT) industry body Nasscom and software product think tank Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSpirt) will meet Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in separate meetings on Tuesday in Bangalore, to share their expectations from the Union Budget 2014 and also discuss the road map for the sector in the future.

The closed-door meetings will be attended by several leaders of the Indian IT services and software product sectors.

After receiving about 7,000 applications in the earlier rounds, information technology (IT) industry body Nasscom on Monday launched the third phase of its “10,000 start-up initiative”. The industry body expects to receive a “few thousand” applications in this round as well.

Launched by Nasscom in April 2013 with partners such as Google, Microsoft and Verisign, the initiative aims to nurture 10,000 start-ups in the next 10 years. Under this programme, Nasscom helps the selected start-ups get into several accelerator programmes, get venture capital or angel funding, put together a business plan, and provide assistance on several other aspects.

After registering a 15 per cent exports drop in 2013-14, the country's largest passenger car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), aims to crack new markets. And, the largest car exporter, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), plans to add new models to its export kitty, to maintain its first position.

MSIL exports to over 100 countries and is now focussing on developing new markets —examples are Angola, Mozambique and Benin in Africa, apart from Panama, Uruguay and Colombia.

The Tata group's holding company, Tata Sons, is pledging shares of group companies, including the most valuable firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to buy out NTT Docomo in Tata Teleservices. This fund-raising exercise is aside from a series of non-convertible debentures the Tata firm has issued.

Tata Sons needs Rs 7,200 crore to buy Docomo's 26.5 per cent stake in loss-making Tata Teleservices. The deadline set by the Japanese company to sell its shares expired on Monday.

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday dismissed an appeal by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) against stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in a seven-year-old case.

The company had moved the tribunal after its application to settle charges of "illegal trading gains" through the consent mechanism was rejected by Sebi.

Lok Sabha Members will attend a two day orientation programme for the first time from Monday at the Parliament House here.

According to reports, they will be made aware of parliamentary procedures.

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