Suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar "knowingly assisted" other key accused in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel in Kerala, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the money trail in the racket, alleged in a supplementary charge sheet filed in a special court here on Thursday. The agency said its investigation so far revealed Sivasankar, the fifth accused in the case, indulged in criminal activities and committed scheduled offences.

The ED filed the partial charge sheet in the court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases here, days before the 60-day limit for filing the charge sheet was to end. In the absence of a charge sheet before 60 days from arrest, an accused is entitled for statutory bail. Sivasankar was arrested by the ED on October 28 and is under judicial custody.

The agency had in October filed an interim charge-sheet against three key accused Sarith P S, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair. In the supplementary charge sheet filed under section 44 and 45 of PMLA for commission of offence of money laundering, the ED alleged that Sivasankar had knowingly assisted the three in smuggling of gold through diplomatic channel.

Honda Cars India will be discontinuing its flagship models - the Civic sedan and the CR-V SUV in the country. This announcement follows the company's decision to end vehicle production at its Greater Noida plant and move its entire production unit to the Honda Tapukara plant in the Alwar district, Rajasthan. Commenting on the development, a Honda Cars India spokesperson told carandbike, "Due to the stoppage of production in Greater Noida Unit, there will be no production of CR-V and Civic as both these models cannot be made in Tapukara plant which was conceived as an integrated plant with high efficiency to produce small and mid-size cars." Honda says that it's consolidate the manufacturing operations at its Tapukara plant to maintain sustainability of operations by leveraging production & supply chain efficiencies.

In addition to production-related issues, we also have to consider the fact that both the Honda Civic and the CR-V have been two of the lowest selling models in the company's line-up. In the last six months alone, the company only sold about 850 units of the Civic and a little over 100 units of the CR-V in India. In comparison, the newly launched 7th gen Honda City accounts for an average of 4000 units a month, while the WR-V is good for about over 1000 units a month. The Honda Amaze continued to be the company's top-seller at about 5000 units a month, while the Honda Jazz accounts for nearly 700 units a month, on an average.

Markets regulator Sebi on December 21 issued new stress testing perimeters for commodity derivatives in order to tackle extreme volatile price events. The move comes after the regulator received representation to review the requirement of including all the price movements during the last 15 years, in the historical scenarios prescribed for stress testing.

With a view to address the concerns emanating from exceptional and extreme volatile price events, Sebi said price movements of the last 15 years will be scanned for stress testing.

Narinder Wadhwa, National President at CPAI said it has been decided to scan for wider periods for stress tests and the prescribed period being 15 years for price movements.

Nehal Modi, the younger brother of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, has been indicted here for fraudulently obtaining diamonds worth over USD 2.6 million from one of the world's biggest diamond companies in Manhattan.

Nehal, 41, is charged in a New York Supreme Court indictment with Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. Said.

"While diamonds maybe forever, this flawed scheme was not, and now Modi will face the clarity of a New York Supreme Court indictment. My Office will not allow individuals who have the privilege of soliciting business in Manhattan's iconic diamond industry to defraud our businesses or consumers," Vance said in a statement on Friday.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said post-Covid improvement in economic recovery is not steady and continuous yet. The statement was part of the minutes of the RBI Monetary Policy Committee Meeting held from 2-4 December, 2020 that were released on Friday.

"The Reserve Bank’s consumer confidence survey of urban areas has registered a marginal uptick in November 2020 from its trough in September. Optimism on early vaccine availability has also boosted economic sentiments. As per my assessment, the recovery is multi-speed as more sectors are showing an upturn, though the improvement is not steady and continuous yet," said Das.

Investment demand in the economy is still to gain traction even as the transmission of policy rate actions has been sharper and quicker. Corporate bond yields have seen a significant reduction, he said.