Top headlines: Repo rate unchanged at 4%; BCCI, Vivo suspend partnership

Here are the top headlines of the day

RBI monetary policy review: Repo rate unchanged at 4%; stance accommodative

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday decided to keep the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent, already at the lowest since 2000, and reverse repo rate at 3.35 per cent. In view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant stress in the system, the central bank also decided to allow lenders to provide a restructuring facility on some loans that were standard as on March 1, 2020. An expert committee will be set up under K V Kamath to thrash out modalities and look into resolution plans of eligibile borrowers. Read more

India must look beyond what rating agencies think, says Raghuram Rajan

Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum. Read more

BCCI suspends IPL title sponsorship deal with Vivo amid tensions with China

The BCCI suspended the IPL title sponsorship deal with Chinese mobile phone company Vivo for the event's upcoming edition amid soaring Sino-India diplomatic tensions. The BCCI sent out a one-line statement without giving any details to say that Vivo will not be associated with the IPL this year. Read more

Manoj Sinha to replace G C Murmu as lieutenant governor of Jammu & Kashmir

Former Union minister Manoj Sinha is set to be the next lieutenant governor (L-G) of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a communique on Thursday. Sinha replaces Girish Chandra Murmu, the first L-G of J&K, who resigned from the post on Wednesday. President Ram Nath Kovind accepted Murmu’s resignation on Thursday. Read more

At least eight dead in Ahmedabad's Covid hospital fire, PM expresses grief

Eight patients at a private Covid-19 designated hospital died after a fire broke out in Gujarat's Ahmedabad early Thursday morning. on Thursday,. "Fire broke out at the Shrey Hospital in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad during the early hours of Thursday," said an official. Around 40 other Covid-19 patients at the facility were rescued and shifted to a civic hospital in the city, he said. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Read more

Jeff Bezos sells 1 mn Amazon shares worth $3.1 bn after fortune surges

1 million Amazon.com Inc. shares offloaded for more than $3.1 billion. And yet for the seller, Jeff Bezos, it barely puts a dent in his stake in the e-commerce giant. The disposals, disclosed Wednesday in Securities and Exchange Commission filings, adds to a $4.1 billion sale earlier this year. The proceeds are a fraction of the amount that Bezos’s holdings have increased this year as the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to stay at home and created a surge in demand for Amazon’s e-commerce services. Read more

Facebook, Twitter target Trump, team's posts for coronavirus misinformation

Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday acted against US President Donald Trump for allegedly spreading coronavirus misinformation after his official and election campaign accounts broke rules. Facebook removed from Trump’s official account the post of a video clip from a Fox News interview in which he said children are “almost immune” from Covid-19. Twitter required his Team Trump campaign account to delete a tweet with the same video, blocking it from tweeting in the interim, the Washington Post reported. Read more