Putin, Ukraine President discuss possible ceasefire: Kremlin

"The issue of possible ceasefire in the area of a military operation in Ukraine's southeast has been touched upon," the Kremlin.
  
Putin expressed concern over the deaths of the two Russian media workers and stressed the importance of ensuring safety of reporters working in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
  
"Petro Poroshenko expressed condolences over the deaths of Russian media representatives and assured the Russian president that a relevant investigation would be conducted following his order," Putin's office said.
  
The pro-Western Ukrainian leader also vowed to take necessary measures to protect reporters covering the conflict, the Kremlin added.
  
Earlier, the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, known by its acronym VGTRK, said one of journalists, Igor Kornelyuk, was killed after being caught up in a mortar attack near the city of Lugansk.
  
Later the state company confirmed the death of another of its employees, sound technician Anton Voloshin, who had earlier been considered missing.
  
Voloshin's body was found by Ukrainian rebels at the site of the attack and identified by his colleague, a cameraman who was filming the attack but escaped uninjured, Russian television said.
  
Kornelyuk died of his injuries in a local hospital. The bodies of the two would be handed over to their relatives on Wednesday.
  
Kornelyuk and Voloshin became the first Russian media employees to die while covering the Ukraine crisis.
  
Their deaths brings to five the number of journalists killed in Ukraine since the start of the year, according to Reporters Without Borders. More than 200 have been injured or attacked.

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South-West monsoon arrives in Odisha

Director of the Meteorological Department SC Sahu said the South-West monsoon is covering coastal districts of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore.

The monsoon also hit some parts of districts like Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack and also some portions of adjoining interior districts of Jajpur, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, the MeT office said.

Conditions are favourable for further advance of South-West monsoon into remaining parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and some parts of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha and east Uttar Pradesh during next 48 hours, Sahu said.

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Akhilesh reshuffles Cabinet, drops one Minister

Yadav removed Minister of State for Entertainment Tax Taj Narain Pandey, an official statement said. Portfolios of nine Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of state were also changed.
  
Balram Yadav who previously held Panchayti Raj has been given the Jail Administration, which was earlier with Rajendra Chaudhary.
  
Chaudhary has been given the portfolio of Political Pensions, the release said.
  
Senior Minister Ram Govind Chaudhary was divested of Child Nutrition. He will now only have Basic Education department with him.
  
Brahmashankar Tripathi has been divested of Vocational Education and Skill Development departments and has been left with only the responsibility of Home Guards department, the release said.
  
The departments of Khadi and Gramodyog have been taken from Kailash and given to Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Narad Rai.
  
Kailash has been given the portfolio of Panchayti Raj while Agriculture minister Manoj Pandey has been given Science and Technology.
  
Iqbal Mahmood has been made the Minister for Fisheries and Public Enterprises divesting him of the Secondary Education department, which will be now be with previous Fisheries Minister Mehboob Ali.
  
Minister of State (Independent) for non-conventional energy Vijay Kumar Misra has been given Religious Endowment department while Minister of State for Science and Technology Abhishek Misra has been given Vocational Education.....

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ICICI Bank launches 'iMobile' app for Windows phones

The new app is available for download on the Windows Phone Store for mobile phones on the Windows 8 operating system.

"With this new app, our mobile banking application is now available on all major platforms including iOS, Android and Blackberry," ICICI Bank director Rajiv Sabharwal said.

The app also introduces the next level of customer convenience by offering one-touch access to important services on its dashboard, he added.

The app lets the user select his favourite past recharge transaction and allows a quick recharge without having to enter all the details again.

Other key features of the app include fund transfer, bill payment and an account view across savings, current account, fixed and recurring deposits, credit cards, loans, demat and public provident fund account.

The bank, with over one-fourth of market share in value terms, has close to 20 lakh mobile banking customers.

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Bulls take a break; Sensex tanks 476 points after three-week gains

Market sentiment remained weak as overseas investors were net sellers in the first four sessions of the week.
   
The Sensex resumed higher at 24,693.89 and once again crossed 25,000 mark to quote at 25,175.22 on strong initial buying before the swearing-in of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister on Monday.
   
The 30-share index, however, declined afterwards to 24,163.62 on profit-booking before finishing the week at 24,217.34, showing a loss of 476.01 points, or 1.93 percent over the previous week's close.
   

In the last three weeks, the key BSE barometer had gained a whopping 2,289.46 points, or 10.22 percent.
   
The NSE 50-share Nifty tumbled by 137.15 points, or 1.86 percent, to end at 7,229.95. It had gained 672.30 points, or 10.04 percent, in the previous three weeks, which were dominated by election-related developments.
   
"Investors preferred to remain on sidelines ahead of GDP data, which came at 4.7 percent for 2013-14 announced on late Friday (after market hours), and RBI policy review next week," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
   
Going ahead, RBI's monetary policy on June 3 and the first Budget of the Modi Government shall be major triggers for the market, according to Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice-President, Bonanza Portfolio.

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Indians can invest up to USD 125,000 overseas annually

"In view of the recent stability in the foreign exchange market, it has been decided to enhance the eligible limit to USD 125,000 without end-use restrictions except for prohibited foreign exchange transactions such as margin trading, lottery and the like," the Reserve Bank of India said in its Second Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement.

The RBI had in August last year reduced the ceiling from USD 200,000 to USD 75,000 per person in a financial year under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) in view of the worsening current account deficit and a volatile rupee.

The LRS allows residents to acquire and hold shares, debt instruments or other assets outside India without prior approval of the RBI.

In the monetary policy, the RBI also permitted all residents and non-residents, except citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh, to carry up to Rs 25,000 in Indian currency notes while leaving the country.

This has been done with a "view to facilitating travel requirements" of non-residents visiting India, the RBI said. Currently, non-residents visiting India are not allowed to take out any Indian currency while leaving the country.

The current limit for carrying domestic currency notes for Indians travelling overseas is Rs 10,000.

India's current account deficit narrowed to 1.7 percent of GDP in 2013-14 from a record USD 88.2 billion or 4.8 percent of GDP, in 2012-13.

The monetary policy review document said that robust inflows of portfolio investment, supported by foreign direct investment and external commercial borrowings, kept external financing conditions comfortable and helped add to reserves.

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