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Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it had received reports more than 3 years ago of faulty engine valve springs at the center of a US recall of nearly 139,000 luxury Lexus vehicles it announced last week.Toyota plans to recall 270,000 luxury Lexus and Toyota Crown vehicles across the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Europe and other countries due to the potential defects that could lead to engine failures.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said his government would free diesel prices, even as some of his allies and the opposition criticised the government’s move last week to move petrol and petro-products from state-set prices to market-based rates. The prime minister said lifting state control had become necessary to cut the high level of subsidies, but added that his government had taken due care to ensure the poor were not hit, by maintaining control over the prices of cooking gas and kerosene.

Four state-owned banks also announce rates; all eyes on private banks now.

State Bank of India (SBI) today fixed its base rate, or the minimum rate at which it will lend to borrowers, at 7.5 per cent. The rate announced by the country’s biggest lender will set a benchmark for other banks and replace the benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) regime from July 1. SBI, which has a 17 per cent share in all the bank loans offered in the country, presently has a BPLR of 11.75 per cent.

BSkyB rejected a cash proposal by part owner News Corp to buy the rest of the broadcaster that values it at $19 billion, but said it would recommend a higher offer from the Rupert Murdoch-controlled group.

Britain’s dominant pay-TV broadcaster, whose growing subscription revenues, thanks to premium sports and bundling of TV and other services, appeal to cash-rich News Corp, said on Tuesday the June 10 proposal undervalued the company

You can save on computing — from operating system to anti-virus

A computer is now recognised as a necessity, not a luxury. With both local and international brands flooding the market with their products, the percentage of people using assembled computers (white-box) is slowly going down.

The high-powered committee for building the first indigenous civilian aircraft in India has decided to configure a 90-seater civilian aircraft and is expected to give its report within the next year to the government. India is going ahead with the project despite the two decade-old experimentation with Saras, a 14-seater passenger aircraft, yet to get into commercial production.

Air India’s (AI) management and staff unions are again set for collision, with the former today declaring derecognition of the two unions involved in the two-day strike which had ended last evening.

AI’s management also dismissed 41 members of the two unions today, taking the number of sacked employees since yesterday to 58. It also suspended nine employees. It had suspended 15 engineers yesterday. Never before has AI terminated the services of so many staffers at one go.

The country’s largest biscuits company, Britannia Industries, today reported a 28 per cent drop in net profit for 2009-10 at Rs 103.10 crore, compared to the previous year. The company attributed steep commodity prices to the fall.

Net sales grew by 10.21 per cent to Rs 3,770.84 crore, against the previous year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) slumped 31.62 per cent to Rs 121.45 crore. The company did not share the fourth quarter numbers.

Tata Motors, the country’s biggest automaker, today posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,516 crore for the year ended March 31, on the back of a robust pick-up in Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) business. The company, which did not provide separate results for the fourth quarter, had posted a consolidated loss of Rs 2,505 crore in 2008-09, as demand for the two luxury brands hit new lows, following the global economic crisis.

It was hardly a summer evening — cold, grey and depressing. But, an appropriate setting for the outgoing Prime Minister of Britain. On that evening of May 11, Gordon Brown, with his wife, Sarah, and two sons John and James, were getting ready to depart 10, Downing Street. It is very unlikely either Brown or his wife will ever step into the highest executive office in the UK again.