India’s direct tax receipt up 8.3 percent, but miss target

October 8th, 2009 Target September sales metric beats estimatesMINNEAPOLIS — Target says a key sales measure dipped 1.7 percent in September but beat analyst estimates. The result led the discount retailer to predict third-quarter earnings per share above Wall Street's forecast.

October 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - There has been an 80 percent increase in India's scientific research output since 2000, a news study revealed Tuesday, forecasting that the country will overtake all other countries between 2015 to 2020. The study carried out by British firm Thomson Reuters that owns the news agency Reuters was released in Delhi Tuesday.

September 25th, 2009 20-year-old brunette wins Miss VenezuelaCARACAS, Venezuela — Marelisa Gibson, a 20-year-old brunette, has been crowned Miss Venezuela and will represent the beauty-obsessed South American country at next year's Miss Universe pageant. The annual Miss Venezuela pageant is the one of Venezuela's most watched programs and a source of national pride.

September 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Despite a global slowdown, the inflow of foreign direct investment into India was 56.5 percent higher in July at $3.52 billion against $2.25 billion in the like month of last year, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Thursday. "Our foreign direct investment equity inflows indicate an increase of 56.5 percent in US dollar terms and 77 percent in rupee terms over July 2008," Sharma told a press conference here.

August 6th, 2009 KOCHI - Miss Kerala Contest held under court supervision, even as members of Solidarity Movement in Kerala demanded a ban on such events, apprehending vulgarity and flesh trade. The entire contest was held under the watchful eyes of a five-member panel constituted by High Court of Kerala on a writ petition filed by People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), which said that girls aged below 18 years were participating in the contest and it promoted vulgarity.

July 20th, 2009 Miss California lost crown, but gains a book dealNEW YORK — The former Miss California who was stripped of her title last month has a book deal. Carrie Prejean will publish a memoir called "Still Standing." Conservative book house Regnery (REG'-nur-ee) Publishing said Monday that it will release the book.

June 4th, 2009 Target May same-store sales slip 6.1 percentMINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. says its same-store sales declined worse than analysts expected in May.

May 12th, 2009 Trump to make announcement about Miss CaliforniaNEW YORK — Donald Trump plans to make an announcement regarding Miss California USA Carrie Prejean (pray-ZHAHN'). Trump, who owns the Miss USA pageant, will make the announcement Tuesday at Trump Tower in New York City.

May 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's merchandise exports fell short of the target set for the previous fiscal and were valued at $168.7 billion, up merely 3.4 percent over $163.13 billion in the year before, latest trade data showed Friday. The government had set a target of $200 billion, which could not materialise due to the general downturn in the global economy and recession in some of the country's largest trading partners such as the US and Britain.

April 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Politicians beware! If a Madhya Pradesh businessman's campaign succeeds, shoe missiles - typically aimed at high profile leaders - may not miss their target any more. Indore-based youth Rajesh Bidkar, in an effort to get some free publicity, no doubt, has launched a 'juta feko (hurl the shoe)' training campaign.

April 7th, 2009 MUMBAI - Winners of Miss India Universe, Miss India World and Miss India Earth titles have said they were determined to bring international laurels to the country. Ekta Choudhary from New Delhi bagged the Miss India Universe title.

February 23rd, 2009 CHENNAI - Direct selling fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Amway India has scaled down its business growth projections 25 percent in 2009, as against the 40 percent growth it registered in 2008, a top company official said here Monday. 'The current year's targeted growth rate is an optimistic figure in the FMCG segment given the general slowdown in the economy,' William S.

February 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - After registering a decline for two successive months, India's merchandise exports were marginally up 1.1 percent in December at $12.690 billion, as against $12.825 billion during the like month of last fiscal. Cumulatively, the exports grew 17.1 percent during the first nine moths of the fiscal to $131.990 billion against $112.737 billion during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, official data showed Monday.

January 26th, 2009 MUMBAI - Following are the highlights of the quarterly monetary policy review conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here Friday in which some key rates were left unchanged and the country's growth targeted was lowered for this fiscal: - Bank rate kept unchanged at 6 percent. - Repo rate has been kept unchanged at 5.5 percent.

December 31st, 2008 NEW DELHI - The New Year started with some disheartening news for India's exporting community with the latest trade data showing a 9.9-percent drop in outbound merchandise shipments in November - the second straight month of decline. Exports during November were valued at $11.505 million, which was 9.9 percent lower than the $12.768 million during the like month of last fiscal, as per data released by the commerce and industry ministry Thursday.