US carmaker Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and has formed an alliance with Fiat, President Obama has said.

Chapter 11 protects firms from their creditors, allowing them to rearrange their finances while still trading.The move came after talks had broken down with Chrysler's lenders late on Wednesday, the White House said.Chrysler said most of its plants would be shut until the transaction was complete but staff would still be paid. Chrysler chief executive Robert Nardelli said he would step down after the company emerges from bankruptcy. Mr Nardelli has been in charge at Chrysler since 2007 but said he felt it would be an appropriate time to leave after bankruptcy

Soon after having bought out Groupe Danone SA's its 25.48-per cent stake two weeks back, Britannia Industries Ltd announced that it was buying out its partner Fonterra Brands (Mauritius Holding) Ltd's 49-per cent shareholding in Britannia New Zealand Foods Pvt Ltd (BNFZ), the Brittania-Fonterra dairy joint venture. With this, the Wadia group now fully controls all its food businesses. The acquisition makes BNZF a fully-owned subsidiary of Britannia Industries. The companies did not disclose the value of the deal, but Fonterra said it is transferring the stake at a "nominal value''.

Bloomberg quoted a Fonterra executive as saying that the holding, acquired in 2002 for $19.8 million, had been written down in the past two years. "We've taken the decision to exit at a nominal value and be released from any loan guarantees or any further liabilities,'' he said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has sought clarifications from Bharti Group on whether the company has violated its norms by increasing promoter’s stake in Bharti Airtel from 60.91 per cent to 67.03 per cent without announcing an open offer.

According to SEBI regulations, promoter group companies who together hold more than 55 per cent stake in an entity, have to go for a public offer if they acquire more than 5 per cent stake in a single financial year. SEBI has taken into account equity shares held by Bharti Telecom Ltd, Pastel Ltd and Indian Continental Investment Ltd in calculating the promoter group’s stake.

Multinational consulting firms and their arrangements with local audit firms are once again under the scanner of the audit profession regulator, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The CA institute has shot off letters to 12 Indian chartered accountancy firms that have affiliation with international entities.

These 12 firms have now been asked to furnish documents relating to various aspects of their dealings with the international entities including contract details, arrangement of sharing of fees/profits, details of remittances made to and received from multinational entities, copies of the partnership deeds of the audit firms, sharing of human resources and infrastructure and income-tax assessment orders for the last three years, etc

The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 0.57 per cent for the week ended April 18, above the previous week’s annual rise of 0.26 per cent, government data showed on Thursday.

The year-on-year rate of inflation, which had hovered below 0.5 per cent for six weeks since March 2009, increased by 31 basis points largely due to a surge in primary articles and manufactured products, especially sugar