Indian stock market has plunged over 10 per cent in the last one month and a little over 8 per cent since January. Uncertainty around the US Federal Reserve rate hike, and rising fears of slowdown in China, the world's second largest economy, have led to rout in global equities. The S&P BSE sensex has fallen a little over 6 per cent in the last one year, but there are stocks on the benchmark index that have declined up to 60 per cent in the same period. Out of the 30 sensex stocks, 21 stocks have wiped out gains in the last one year and have, in fact, brought negative returns. The sensex fell below 25,000 and closed today at 24,893.81 (308.09 pts down). The Nifty was at 7,558 (96.25 pts) down.

Two Indians taken into custody in Thai bombing case
Two Indians have been taken into custody for questioning by Thai police after they were seen on CCTVs talking to a foreign suspect wanted in Thailand's deadliest bombing at a Brahma temple in capital Bangkok today. The two Indians have been taken to a military camp for questioning.

BSNL to offer minimum broadband speed of 2 Mbps from October 1
State-run BSNL will offer a minimum broadband speed of 2 mega bit per second (Mbps) from October 1 onwards to its customers, at no extra cost. The company currently offers a minimum speed of 512 Kbps and the move is part of its efforts for revival. BSNL is loosing customers in mobile as well as landline to private operators. The company lost about 1.78 crore wireless and over 20 lakh wireline subscribers between March 2014 and March 2015. The losses for the firm stood at Rs 7,600 crore.

Lufthansa hit by pilots' strike on long-haul, freight operations
German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) called for an all-day strike on Lufthansa's long-haul flights, starting Tuesday, increasing pressure on management in a long-running dispute over pay, retirement benefits and cost cuts. The union said on Monday the strike, the 13th walkout in 18 months, would affect all long-haul passenger flights and all cargo flights out of Germany from 0600 GMT to 2159 GMT on Tuesday.

FTII students threaten en masse hunger strike
With no end in sight to the nearly three-month-old strike in FTII, the protesting students today threatened go on hunger strike en masse if their main demand of removal of actor Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the premier institute was not met by the Centre. "The students will be sitting on an indefinite hunger strike if our demands are not met by the government which has put us in this situation. There is no option left," FTII Students' Association (FSA) representative Vikas Urs said. However, no date has been set for the strike.

Memorandum to Governor on Kashmir flood relief package
Opposition National Conference (NC) today submitted a memorandum to Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra asking him to impress upon the Centre as well as the state government to approve a comprehensive rehabilitation package for the victims of last year's floods. The memorandum was submitted to the Governor by a delegation of NC leaders on behalf of party's working president Omar Abdullah at Raj Bhavan here on the occasion of the first anniversary of the floods. The party asked the Centre to end "indecision and ambiguity" on the flood relief package and demanded comprehensive assistance for those affected.

Parliament session decision likely this week
The government will take a final decision this week on convening of an extended session of Parliament to get the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill passed, parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu indicated on Monday. The government is keen to go in for extended session but the decision would be taken after completing consultation with the opposition, he said. “I have already consulted the important leaders of different parties. In a day or two, we will be completing discussion with others also. At the end of it, we will take a final call on the extended session of Parliament,” Naidu said.

90 per cent employees feel there is no pay parity in organisations for same role
Talk about pay-for-performance is only on paper. India Inc. is being blamed for playing favorites when it comes to pay parity at the same level. A survey by JobBuzz.in, the employer rating platform from TimesJobs.com has revealed that a majority of employees believe their companies pay external hires and favorites more - 90 per cent feel there is no pay parity in their organisations for the same role and level.