I have been reading through the Narnia books.  I am now on "The Dawn Treader" which is pretty good.  To my amazement, I came across the phrase "do the needful."  I immediately had flashbacks from a project I had worked on last year in which two guys constantly used that phrase.  I have never heard of anyone using that phrase before...nor did anyone on my team.  With a little Google Foo, I found out it is a little more wide-spread.  This guy goes into a long dissertation and analysis about the saying.  He thought this was just common among people who use English as a second language.  My theory is that it is a British English thing because of the use by C.S. Lewis.  And specifically many people from India learn British English vs. American English.