Japanese car-maker, Nissan Motor has finally disclosed the first sketch of its global compact car. The company has planned to manufacture its first ever compact car in five countries including India, Thailand and China. The company has not announced the names of other two countries.

The company also said that the production of its new compact car will start in May 2010 in India. The car will be manufactured at a Nissan Plant opening shortly at Oragadam in Chennai.

Czech luxury car maker, Skoda Auto India has announced a growth of 53% in its sales during September 2009. As reported by the company, it has sold out as many as 1,854 units during the month. The company had sold only 1, 213 units in same period last year.

Tandberg Data has launched DAT tape drives and media products designed specifically to fulfill SMB needs. The newly introduced media player offers storage capacity up to 160GB on a single cartridge.

The new DAT tape cartridges are light in weight, small, compact and easily transported for offsite storage. DAT tape drives are available in two choices 72GB or 160GB with an option of configurations and interfaces.

Here’s good news for Nokia fans.

The new Nokia N86 firmware has improved the camera performance and squishes a few legions of bugs. The new Nokia N86 has been provided a firmware update, which makes its best features even better.

The latest firmware update is version 20.115 and it improves the picture quality of the camera and includes face detection features. It looks that the Finnish giant’s has continuously been focusing on bettering the still image and video quality of the handset.

Ekta Kapoor, Creative Head of Balaji Telefilms, is all set to launch its two new serials. 

After her ‘Saas-Bahu’ dramas, she is trying to have something different in her upcoming serials. The new serials have been inspired by the belly of the city.

During the media presentation, Balaji Telefilms and Sony Entertainment launched its two prime time shows, ‘Bayttaab Dil Kee Tamanna Hai’ and ‘Pyaar Ka Bandhan’, which will be aired on Sony Entertainment Television soon.

Pradeep Sarkar's 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag' failed to woo audiences despite having some brilliant performances by Rani Mukherjee and Konkona Sen Sharma. But the failure of the film has not stopped Yash Raj Films from roping in Pardeep for their forthcoming project.

Sarkar, who shot to fame with 'Pareenita', will direct the yet-untitled flick with hot hunk Neil Mukesh and OSO gal Deepika Padukone.

The film will be produced by Aditya Chopra.

Apple had purchased its own mapping company, Placebase, in July 2009. The company has not launched any new product or service in the market as part of their acquisition. But still Placebase offers service, which is similar to Google Maps.

Jaron Waldman, Placebase’s founder and CEO, is now working for Apple, and is member of Apple’s GEO Team. This indicates that Apple is looking for its own mapping software to replace Google Maps on the iPhone and Mac OS X in the near future.

With the objective to check their readiness, Indian Army as well as the Air Force carried out a joint exercise in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh near the Chinese border during the last week. 

The joint exercise took place along the 4,057 km Line of Actual Control with China. 

The three-day operation, which was named as ‘Operation Pralay’, comprised all the frontline fighter aircraft such as Sukhoi, Mirage-2000, MiG-29, MiG-27 and IL-78 air-to-air refueling planes. 

Here’s a good for CBSE students. 

Now, CBSE students will get as many as five attempts to clear their exams. The announcement was made by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), under which students of classes IX and X from the academic year 2009-10 will get five attempts to improve their grades. Students can sit for the exam again after one month.

The Income Tax Department said that persons receiving gifts either in cash or kind will have to pay tax, if the cost price of gift exceeds Rs 50,000. 

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has said that the norms would be effective from October 1. 

However, it would not be applicable on the gifts given by relatives or on the occasion of marriage. The CBDT also said that there would be no tax on gifts received by way of will, inheritance or in the event of death of the donor.