Former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee called for action to tackle India's dire poverty as he was sworn in as president on Wednesday during an elaborate display of pomp and circumstance.

The presidency is mainly a ceremonial role, but Mukherjee used his acceptance speech to appeal for India to prioritise the hundreds of millions of poor who have been left behind by recent economic growth.

Former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was elected Indian president on Sunday after votes from national and state lawmakers were counted in the race for the mainly ceremonial post.

Some analysts believe Mukherjee, a veteran from the ruling Congress party, may take a more active approach to the job than his predecessors as India struggles with a parliamentary deadlock and slowing economic growth.

Frustrated by the lack of old Bollywood glamour on the streets of Mumbai, two film buffs are trying to brighten up India's movie capital with mural tributes ahead of the industry's 100th birthday.

The iconic image of a reclining, cigarette-smoking young Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest star of Hindi cinema, has been lovingly recreated on a roadside wall, replicating the dying style of hand-painted poster art.

India's home ministry has refused to allow three Iranian banks to open branches on Indian soil because of concerns about money-laundering and terror financing, a report said on Friday.

The move complicates New Delhi's efforts to settle its oil trade bills with the Islamic Republic, the Indian Express daily reported, quoting an unnamed home ministry official for the report.

India's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki on Thursday suspended production at a plant near New Delhi after workers attacked managers, leaving one person dead and scores injured, a company executive said.

The manager, who declined to be identified, told Agence France Presse that a burned body had been recovered from the Manesar plant's main conference room after violence erupted late Wednesday.

India called on the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday to probe the fatal shooting of an Indian fisherman by a U.S. navy ship in waters off Dubai, the Indian foreign ministry said.

"India's ambassador in Abu Dhabi has requested UAE authorities to probe the circumstances of the tragic incident," ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.

Anil Kanade seems almost too stunned to speak about the deadly cancer recently found in his mouth, caused by his addiction to a popular Indian chewing tobacco that doctors say is fuelling an epidemic.

Like millions of young Indians, the factory worker was for years hooked on "gutka" -- a cheap, mass-produced mix of tobacco, crushed areca nut and other ingredients that several states are now trying to wipe out.

The head of India's vehicle-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group says he still has high hopes for the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, despite a slow sales start.

"The fundamental economies of the Nano... will continue to establish itself in the Indian market with a wider sales and service network," Tata chairman Ratan Tata said in the firm's annual report released on Friday.

The Indian government has stepped in to buy a collection of thousands of letters, papers and photos relating to Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi ahead of its planned auction in London.

The archive, which belonged to Gandhi's close friend Hermann Kallenbach, a German Jewish bodybuilder and architect, was to have gone under the hammer at Sotheby's on Tuesday.

The death toll from heavy monsoon rains which have caused massive flooding in India's northeast has risen to more than 120, with six million forced to flee their homes, officials said Saturday.

The weather office forecast that more rains during the next 24 hours would lash the region, which is suffering from its worst flooding in recent years.