INDIA NUMBER 3 R&D DESTINATION 

India has emerged as the third most attractive prospective destination for setting up research centres by the world's largest corporations looking to expand their R&D activities worldwide during 2005-09, according to an UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) survey.
The country is only the second developing economy after China in the radar of the world's largest R&D-spending Transnational Corporations.
In its World Investment Report 2005 - Transnational Corporations and the Internationalisation of R&D, UNCTAD said China is the most attractive R&D location with 61.8 per cent of the respondents identifying it as a preferred location.
The United States was ranked second with 41.2 per cent, followed by India with 14.7 per cent.
Japan, United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Canada completed the top ten list of preferred places for setting up research centres. Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Brazil were the other developing countries in the top 30.
UNCTAD said TNCs pumped in over $300 billion in research during 2002.
25 per cent of those responding to the survey said they had research centres in India.
United States and United Kingdom emerged as the top two destinations, followed by China, France and Japan in the 2004 survey, the UN body said.

CHEAP AIR FARES HIT AIR POCKET 

Cheap domestic air fares may now be a thing of the past, at least for the next two to three months. Airlines are making the most of a huge demand for seats as they move into the peak season. Sales of low-fare tickets (called buckets in travel parlance) have been stopped and seats are being sold only at the higher fare levels. 
"Air fares for November going forward up to the beginning of January are 20-25% higher than September fares," travel agency sources said. Seats on the metro routes are selling like hot cakes despite new capacity addition. The Mumbai-Delhi route, for instance, now has 40 flights per day each way. One of the busiest destinations this Diwali, going right up to the New Year, is Goa. Most airlines have put up the sold out signs already at their Goa counters.