• In order to fetch higher returns than investing in money markets (short term debt instruments), Asset Management Companies such as Kotak Asset Management and ICICI Prudential Asset Management have announced their decision to accept fresh money for arbitrage schemes.

• The Ministry of Finance (MoF) will incorporate the "regulatory impact assessment module", to assess the impact of the actions of three regulators - SEBI, PFRDA and IRDA. The MoF will bring on-board third-party consultants to carry out this study. The move is an effort to strengthen and deepen the financial markets.

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance launched a new Unit Linked Insurance Policy called 'ICICI Pru Pinnacle'. The plan is a wealth creation plan, which offers customers an advantage of varying exposure towards equities, along with a downside protection. The investor has to make a minimum premium payment of Rs 50,000 per year for a period of 3 years.

• Fidelity Mutual Fund launched its new fund/scheme called 'Fidelity India Value Fund'. The fund is an open-ended diversified equity fund, managed by Mr. Nitin Bajaj, which will invest in companies that have more intrinsic value than reflected in their stock prices. The new fund offer opened for subscription on November 16, and will remain open till December 15, 2009.

• National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) has launched a facility named 'SIMPLE' (Submission of Instruction through Mobile Phone Login Easily), which enables investors to submit delivery instruction slips to transfer securities in their brokers account for the purpose of pay-in. Investors who wish to avail of this facility require a GPRS enabled mobile phone and need to register to SPEED e-service as a password user through NSDL.

• Now voting on the corporate affairs is just a click away; Central Depository Services (India) Ltd has launched its e-voting system. During the voting period investors can cast their votes by visiting the website (www.evotingindia.com) by entering their demat account number and Permanent Account Number (PAN) as password.

• SEBI is planning to reduce the time taken to list the Initial Public Offers (IPOs) to 7 days. Currently, it takes 20 days to list the IPO issue, which builds the risk for the investors and issuers. The move is intended to bring in more efficiency to the primary market issues.

• Food inflation rose to 14.6% for the week ended November 7, 2009. On weekly basis, it rose by 0.87% from 13.68% in the previous week.

• The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) doubled its growth forecast for the year 2010. India and China will lead the recovery, with India growing at 7.3% and China by 10.2% in 2010.