A look at the headlines in the sector:

  1. RBI’s monetary policy panel disagreed about India’s growth, inflation risk: The panel voted 5-1 in favour of leaving the repo rate unchanged at 6%. 
  2. Air India seeks Rs 1500-crore loan for urgent capital needs: The carrier has Rs 28,000 crore working capital debt and Rs 4,000 crore interest burden.  
  3. US court reverses $72-million award in Johnson & Johnson case linking its powder to cancer: The appeals court tossed out the case filed by a deceased woman’s family, who alleged she died of ovarian cancer as she used the company’s talc-based products.
  4. Google Play introduces feature that lets users try out an app before installing it: Instant Apps were first introduced in 2016, but there were few that supported the ‘Try It Now’ feature.  
  5. Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah seeks GST exemption for handmade products, writes to Arun Jaitley: He said imposing the new tax on such products had adversely affected the livelihood of artisans.  
  6. RTI activist in Mumbai asked to pay 18% GST for query: The state information commissioner said the tax does not apply to RTI queries.  
  7. Facebook is testing paywalls and subscription models for its Instant Articles feature: The idea is to prompt readers who have not yet subscribed to a publication to do so when they hit the paywall.  
  8. Benchmark indices end lower in first session of Samvat 2074: While the Sensex fell over 194 points, Nifty closed below its 10,200-mark.