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India's forex reserves rose by $8 million to $263.652 billion for the week ended June 19 as compared to $263.644 billion in the previous week.

Foreign currency assets, during the week, jumped by $10 million to $252.808 billion against $252.798 billion in the previous week, RBI said in its weekly report.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies (such as Euro, Sterling, Yen) held in reserves, RBI said.

During the period, the country's gold reserves and special drawing rights (SDR), remained same at $9.604 billion and $1 million, respectively, the bank said.

India's reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fell by $2 million to $1.239 billion in the week as compared to $1.241 billion in the previous week, RBI said

While the country's foreign exchange reserves came down substantially during the financial turmoil in 2008, India's external debt also indicated a sharp rise during this period.

According to finance ministry data, foreign exchange reserves were $310 billion in March 2008 which came down to $252 billion in March 2009. The decrease was 58% over the previous year. During the same period, the country's external debt rose from $225 billion in 2008 to $230 billion in March 2009, a 5% increase over the previous year.

Though foreign exchange reserves showed erosion since May 2008, it has started improving in the last few months. It increased from $251 billion in April to $262 billion in May 2009.

But despite a contraction in the forex reserves, India parked a good amount of dollars in US treasuries. Investments in treasuries increased from $10 billion in May 2008 to $39 billion in May 2009.

Though foreign exchange reserves were on the decline, all through this period India's investment in US treasuries increased. It was $18 billion in October 2008, when US was in the grip of financial meltdown after some of its big financial institutions went bankrupt, and went up to $22 billion in November, $29 billion in December and $39 billion in May 2009.

FRANKFURT-German carmakers BMW and Daimler will expand their cooperation in purchasing automotive components, a BMW board member told German magazine WirtschaftsWoche on Saturday.

Up to 10 percent of a car's components can be purchased jointly by the two companies without damaging their brand names, Herbert Diess said.

Mechanical systems, wheels and tyres are some of the items the two are buying jointly, he added.

Diess said BMW is expected to achieve its goal to save 4 billion euros ($5.68 billion) in purchasing expenditures by 2012 and might even exceed this amount.

Three months ended June 30

 (versus the same period a year earlier, in million rupees
unless stated)

 Net profit           319.4     vs       984.7

 Revenue            8,428.9     vs     8,708.8

 NOTE: Tata Communications Ltd (TATA.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) (TCL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is a
provider of international telecommunication services. Japan's
NTT CoCoMo (9437.T: Quote, Profile, Research) earlier this year completed a deal to buy 26
percent stake in the Indian firm.

ICICI Bank Ltd (ICBK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), India's No.2 lender, on Saturday beat forecast with a 20.6 percent rise in net profit helped by higher trading income.

ICICI said net profit rose to 8.78 billion rupees ($182 million) in its fiscal first quarter ending in June, from 7.28 billion rupees reported a year ago.

* Net profit at 6.93 bln rupees vs 229 mln a year ago
* Excluding foreign exchange gains net profit at 633 mln
* Analysts say U.S. FDA issues remain overhang on shares (Adds quotes, details, share price, byline)

NEW DELHI, July 24 - Ranbaxy Laboratories (RANB.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) smashed market forecasts as currency gains powered a massive rise in June quarter net profit, but U.S. regulatory hurdles are seen remaining a weight on shares of India's leading drugmaker by sales.

The company maintained its April forecast of a $150 million loss for 2009, chief executive Atul Sobti said, compared to $198 million net loss reported for last year.
Ranbaxy, in which Japan's Daiichi Sankyo (4568.T: Quote, Profile, Research) bought about 64 percent last year, incurred losses in the last three quarters as it was hit by huge forex losses and a U.S. ban on some products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February said Ranbaxy had sold misbranded or adulterated drugs in the United States, the company's largest market, having earlier banned imports of more than 30 generic drugs.

Once again, we are hit with the triumvirate of war, the restrictive gold standard, and dollars in foreign banks.
This time, each problem was feeding directly off of the others. The Vietnam Conflict had drained our gold reserves heavily. By 1970, Fort Knox only held US$12 Billion.
The growth of the oil business and the increase in foreign trade caused a boom in the demand for US dollars in foreign banks. Over US$ 47 Billion was sitting in overseas banks.
On paper, our gold reserves were over-leveraged by almost 4 to 1. As a nation, we did not know how to react to such an overbearing assault on our currency. Then along came the invention of the Eurodollar to make our nightmare worse.
Foreign banks with US dollars would make low-interest loans in US dollars to importers and exporters. Although the dollars were never repatriated, the US was still on the hook to exchange these “credit”-created dollars for the gold we kept on reserve.
Then came a miracle in disguise . The Bretton Woods Agreement collapsed. In the over-leveraged gold-dollar environment, many countries began to feel frustrated with the artificial peg.
In blatant defiance to the agreement in 1971, Germany declared that they would float the Deutsche mark. They were tired of the artificial peg that was keeping their economy depressed.
In the first hour of trading, over US$1 billion were exchanged for Deutsche marks. For the first time, the public had voiced their opinion against being so heavily weighted with dollars.
With Germany completely ignoring the Bretton Woods Agreement by floating their currency, the US government had nothing left to do but put the final nail in the coffin of the U.S.'s currency policy. The Bretton Woods Agreement was dissolved.
Three short months after the Deutsche mark began to float, the US moved off of the gold standard. Gold was allowed to float freely like any other currency. Oil, although priced in US dollars, soon switched to a peg against gold. Gold and oil prices jumped ten-fold.
The currency dynamics were soon changed on a global scale and it became accepted practice that countries began to float their own currency.