* AUTOMOBILES: Audi India sold 1,104 vehicles in March versus 1,002 units a year ago. Swedish carmaker Volvo is looking at increasing sales in India by 50% this year to 1,200 units and will launch a new model by June.
* BANKING: Large foreign banks in the country will be forced to slow down with the Reserve Bank imposing stiffer rules on lending to priority sectors.
* CORPORATE: Indian companies invested $1.88 bln in other countries in March, up from $1.65 bln in February.
* ENERGY: State-owned oil companies will immediately purchase 110 mln ltr of ethanol from sugar mills at the market price of 42 rupees a ltr, significantly higher than the earlier price of 27 rupees. Vedanta Resources PLC may takeover Cairn Energy PLC.
* FMCG: Unilever has said that while consumer demand remains robust in emerging markets, risk of a slowdown in India and other markets remains.
* STOCK MARKETS: Over the last six months, close to 500 stock market investors have given undertakings to capital market regulator SEBI that they are not linked to promoters of listed companies whose shares they own. The Cabinet is likely to soon clear disinvestment board proposal for setting up of a PSU exchange traded fund.
* REALTY: Jones Lang LaSalle is looking at a new realty fund in India , which will have a corpus of 12 bln rupees.
* REGULATORS: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has accused a number of prominent companies in the power and cement sectors of using a loophole in the law to dodge import duty amounting to about 25 bln rupees on coal imports. The Department of Disinvestment has suggested SEBI to allow companies to reveal the floor price on stock exchanges as and when the Empowered Group of Minister fixes it.
