UBS Europe chief Sergio P. Ermotti will take over immediately as interim chief executive until Mr. Gruebel’s replacement is appointed, the bank said in a statement.

UBS’s president Kaspar Villiger said the board regretted Mr. Gruebel’s decision to resign but had decided to accept it.

“Oswald Gruebel feels that it is his duty to assume responsibility for the recent unauthorised trading incident,” Mr. Villiger was quoted as saying in the statement. “It is testimony to his uncompromising principles and integrity.”

London-based UBS trader Kweku Adoboli was arrested last week and charged with fraud and false accounting for the $2.3 billion loss. A judge ordered him on Thursday to be held in jail until a hearing next month.

Mr. Villiger said Mr. Gruebel, who was brought in more than two years ago to help revive the fortunes of the Zurich-based bank, had achieved “an impressive turnaround and strengthened UBS fundamentally.”

“He steps down having helped make UBS one of the world’s best capitalised banks,” Mr. Villiger added.

The announcement also noted that the board, which met in Singapore this week, would seek to put in place measures to prevent a similar rogue trading loss from recurring.

In a teleconference held here on Thursday, Mahesh Gupta, Vice-President, Business-Borderless Networks, Cisco (India and SAARC), said about 33 per cent across the globe and 95 per cent Indian college students and young employees admitted that Internet was as important in their lives as water, food, air and shelter. More than half of the respondents globally (55 per cent of college students and 62 per cent of employees) said they could not live without the Internet and cite it as an “integral part of their lives.”

On the social life, people had indicated that Internet was more important to them than dating, going out with friends or listening to music. Mr. Gupta said within certain countries, including India, updating Facebook was ranked as the highest priority than socialising. About 91 per cent of college students and 88 per cent of employees globally had Facebook account. The other interesting factor was that two-thirds of students and more than half of employees (58 per cent) felt that a mobile device (laptop, smartphone or tablets) was the most important technology device in their lives. For young employees, India came second globally when it comes to importance of mobile device usage (71 per cent), behind the U.K (74 per cent), but ahead of Australia (66 per cent), China (62 per cent) and the U.S. (62 per cent).

In India, 68 per cent of young employees preferred to use smartphone and consider it as their most important device.

Slowdown impact

The other large companies, which have paid lower taxes during the second quarter, include Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, National Aluminium, Hyundai Motors, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam and Bosch. ICICI Bank paid the same amount as last year.

However, on account of increased advance tax payment by certain companies such as ONGC, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel, the overall collections from top 100 corporates during the July-September quarter were up 9.86 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.

The increase in advance tax realisation during April- September works out to be 12.02 per cent, according to the data on top 100 companies tabulated by the IT Department.

The data reveal a sharp decline in payment of advance taxes by state-owned petroleum companies which are hit by rising prices of crude in the international market.

While Indian Oil paid no advance tax during the quarter as against Rs.351 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal, payment by Bharat Petroleum declined by 83 per cent to Rs.35 crore during the period.

Auto sector

The slowdown was also witnessed in the auto sector, with Maruti Suzuki paying Rs.120 crore during the second quarter, down 55.88 per cent over last year’s.

Similarly, advance tax payment by Hyundai declined by 13.52 per cent to Rs.81 crore.

Tata Motors showed no increase in payment of advance tax during the second quarter.

As per the Central Board of Direct Taxes data, net advance tax collections in the first six months of this fiscal stood at Rs.1.80 lakh crore, up 6.6 per cent year-on-year.

In the banking sector, SBI and Oriental Bank of Commerce paid lesser tax in the second quarter of this fiscal over July-September, 2010.

On the other hand, tax contribution by Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank and Canara Bank showed an increase. Advance tax payment by ICICI Bank, however, remained flat at Rs.650 crore.

In the power sector, NTPC’s payment increased by 42.49 per cent to Rs.721 crore during the period under review, while that of Neyveli Lignite Corporation was down 50.19 per cent.

The reduction in payment of advance tax by corporates comes at a time when the industrial growth fell to a meagre 3.3 per cent in July amidst high interest rates. Factory output measured on IIP was 9.9 per cent in July last year.

This is marked by the addition of a new range of Bosch domestic home appliances that include washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and dryers to the existing product portfolio of BSH Home Appliances Pvt. Ltd.

As a part of the group’s retail expansion strategy, Bosch’s set of home appliances will be made available pan-India, however, in two phases. The initial product range will be distributed through leading multi-brand retailers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi-NCR. The second phase will see the products available across India.

Commenting at the launch of Bosch Home Appliances in India, Marc Hantscher, Managing Director and CEO of BSH Home Appliances, said, “With the launch of Bosch Home Appliances, we are poised at bringing a new business dynamic to the home appliances sector in India, one of our key focus markets for Asia. India is currently one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and has proved remarkable resilience to the recent financial crisis witnessed globally. By the launch of Bosch Home Appliances our aim is to bring in the world’s best in consumer appliances, renowned for their quality and technological advances, which will appeal widely to the young and classy Indian population”.

Mr. Hantscher said, “The introduction of energy-efficient and water-saving appliances through Bosch Home Appliances, will further add to the effort of India to promote sustainable development and growth”.

The Silver and Platinum Pass being offered in two variants for unlimited travel in the economy and executive class on the domestic sectors of the national carrier will now be valid for 15 days, the airline said.

Passengers buying the Silver Pass can fly on the economy class to any domestic sector of their choice at a fare of Rs.35,000 any number of times during the 15-day period.

Passengers who purchase the Platinum Pass can enjoy unlimited trips in the executive class to any domestic destination at a fare Rs.75,000. This fare is inclusive of taxes, Air India said.

The passes are available for sale from September 21 and will be valid for travel up to January 15, 2012.

The day of commencement of the journey would be treated as the first day and the 15 days would be counted from the date of the commencement of the journey for determining travel validity, officials said.

“We have in principle approved to allocate five coal blocks to NTPC. The identification of the coal blocks is still underway,” Mr. Jaiswal told reporters on the sidelines of Round Table Conference on Coal organised by India Energy Forum here.

The coal blocks would be allocated through government dispensation route to NTPC’s four power projects — 500 MW in Rai Bareilly, UP; 1,600 MW at Kudgi in Karnataka; 1,600 MW at Gajmara in Orissa and 3,960 MW at Barethi in Madhya Pradesh. NTPC has 15 coal-based and seven gas-based power stations, besides six joint venture or subsidiary power projects across the country. In May, Coal Ministry de-allocated 14 coal blocks and one lignite block awarded to public sector companies like NTPC, besides three private firms, over their failure to develop the same for captive use.

Earlier, speaking at the conference, Mr. Jaiswal stressed on urgent need to facilitate production of coal through proactive measures to meet increasing demand of coal.

Expressing concern over slow progress of captive coal mining projects, Mr. Jaisawal said that early solutions need to be found for various problems facing the coal sector so that the economy can go ahead with the planned growth rate and the coal sector is enabled to play its rightful role in fuelling this growth.

Mr. Jaiswal said keeping in view the indigenous availability and demand estimated by CEA for power utilities in future, Ministry of Power should plan for higher imports. Separately Power Ministry must also examine the need for existing plants to be retro-fitted in order to absorb higher percentages of imported coal.

He said both public and private companies are suffering due to delays in obtaining environmental and forestry clearances in addition to the constraints in land acquisition and R&R. However, he noted that coal mining has left adverse impact on the environment over the period and the credibility of the sector needs to be improved in this regard by adopting best practices.

He said cooperation of the Railway in early implementation of identified rail infrastructure projects in potential coalfields for coal evacuation including additional rolling stock is a critical area in enhancing domestic production. In a number of cases coal companies are willing to fund the cost of the projects as there is no dearth of resources.

According to unaudited results of BSNL, the loss for 2010-11 stood at Rs.5,997 crore, mainly due to hefty outgo on employees’ salary and expenses borne by the government-owned telecom firm for procuring 3G and BWA spectrum. BSNL paid Rs.18,500 crore for getting 3G and BWA licenses. Notably, BSNL had reported the highest net profit of over Rs.10,000 crore in 2005-06.

The airport is owned by HAL, which has invested around Rs.70 crore in developing the infrastructure. This will now be used for export and import activities by facilitating air cargo services from Nashik. While the airport, runway and air traffic control (ATC) will be managed by HAL, the cargo complex is managed by Clarion Solutions, which is assigned terminal operator, ground handling operator and regulated agent.

Addressing a press conference here, HAL Managing Director (MIG) P. V. Deshmukh said the airport was extremely well equipped and capable of handling even the Russian AN-124 aircraft, the heaviest aircraft in the world. The airport comprises a full-fledged air cargo complex, warehousing, integrated packing centre for perishables, cold storage, screening, unitising, ground handling services for airlines, CCTV surveillance, bar-coding, labelling and customs.

Mr. Deshmukh said the airport had modern radar, ATC, met services, airport aides, parking space and most importantly, night landing facility. Nashik being about 200 km from Mumbai, Ojhar airport initially expects about 20-25 per cent of the 40,000 tonne a month cargo handled at the Mumbai airport.

According to V. Ramnarayan, Vice-Chairman, Transworld Group, which owns Clarion Solutions and is a leading shipping and logistics conglomerate, “Cargo handled at the Mumbai airport has doubled in the last five years. Even though Nagpur is coming up as an international cargo hub and upcoming centres like Solapur airport, all have their own catchment and niche areas and all will be viable.”

The directors of Everonn Education has approved the issue of 26.18 lakh equity shares of Rs. 10 each for cash at a price of Rs. 528 per share, including a premium of Rs. 518 per share to the Varkey Group on a preferential basis, subject to requisite approvals.

Varkey Group will also make an open offer to Everonn shareholders. Subject to necessary approvals, Varkey Group will join Everonn as co-promoter.

The India centre will generate ideas and innovations across all fields and mainly in the area of education, technology and engineering. It will form network groups, which will identify the ideas and innovations, according to Terhi Hakala, Ambassador of Finland to India.

Ms. Hakala, who was here to inaugurate the new facility for Stera Engineering (India) Pvt Ltd in Chennai, said the Finland Government had identified three locations apart from Tamil Nadu, namely, Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore for expanding its businesses. Bilateral trade had been less than one billion euro (around Rs.6,500 crore), she added. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday after the inauguration of the facility, she said that at present there were 100 Finnish companies directly working in India and another 100 were working with partners. Nearly 20 Finnish companies were in Tamil Nadu with total employee strength of 16,000. Similarly there were nearly 20 Indian companies working directly in Finland, she added.

Stera Engineering, a wholly owned-subsidiary of Stera, had invested nearly 3 million euro in Chennai to set up a new bigger facility with a floor space of 50,000 sq. ft. The facility in which the company was earlier operating (10,000 sq. ft.) would be shut down. The new facility would make enclosure cabinets for telecom, healthcare and industrial usage, according to Jyri Kontio, Managing Director of Stera Engineering.

Stera globally focussed on mechanical and electromechanical assemblies. Although most of the production was contract manufacturing, Stera was making its own products such as passenger boarding bridges for airports and cabinets and enclosures for electronics and telecommunications, said Heikki Ajanko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stera Technologies Oy.