Air India on Wednesday implemented a series of cost-saving measures, including reduction in allowances and fuel reimbursement for officers. However, the move is being resisted by its cabin crew — All India Cabin Crew Association (AICCA) — who have called the move discriminatory and illegal.

Around the world, airlines are responding to COVID-19 crisis with sharp reduction in capacity, pay cuts and layoffs.

Facebook said a bug in its anti-spam system temporarily blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said on Twitter Tuesday that the company was working on a fix for the problem.

Users complained that links to news stories about school closings and other information related to the virus outbreak were blocked by the company's automated system.

While the government has intensified its efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, many are taking the opportunity to spread rumours among the people and create confusions. The Maharashtra government has warned such people of legal action if they spread misinformation regarding non-vegetarian food including chicken, mutton, and eggs.

The government has made it clear the administration is working on identification of such miscreants who are propagating fake information about the consumption of non-vegetarian food and strict action will be taken against them.

Shares of telecom companies declined as much as 40 per cent on Wednesday after the Supreme Court said that the self-assessment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues by the firms or the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) may amount to contempt of court.

Among individual stocks, Vodafone Idea tumbled 40 per cent to Rs 2.91 per share. At 11:35 am, the stock was trading 25.36 per cent lower at Rs 3.62 as compared to 2.06 per cent fall in Sensex.

Google on Wednesday appointed long-time industry veteran Karan Bajwa as Managing Director of Google Cloud in India.

A senior leader with over three decades of leadership experience, Bajwa will be responsible for driving all revenue and go-to-market operations for Google Cloud's extensive solution portfolio that includes Google Cloud Platform and G Suite in the country.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar were placed under preventive arrest in Bengaluru after they attempted to visit the hotel where several rebel Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh are staying.

Singh sat on a dharna outside the Ramada Hotel after he was not allowed by the police to meet the rebel lawmakers in the hotel. He was later taken into preventive custody by the police.

The coronavirus infection has reached the Indian Army as a soldier from Leh is reported to have tested positive for the virus. He was on leave from February 25 to March 1 and during that time, his father had returned from a pilgrimage in Iran.

The jawan is said to belong to the Ladakh Scouts. As per news reports, he is being treated while his family including his sister and wife have been put in quarantine. His father has also tested positive.

As the number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 139 on Tuesday, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday issued guidelines for private laboratories to conduct tests and appealed them not to charge anything for it.

According to the guidelines, the private labs would work under the domain of ICMR.

Power utilities having significant exposure to regulated business such as NTPC and Power Grid may have corrected with the decline in broader indices, but analysts maintain a positive view.

NTPC and Power Grid earn a certain regulated return on their capital irrespective of demand for power and the flow of power, and hence excluding some temporary collections issues that may emerge, analysts at HSBC see little risk to earnings for the two companies.

YES Bank, on which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed a moratorium, will resume normal operations from 6 pm on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, administrator of the troubled private sector lender, Prashant Kumar, said that YES Bank will resume normal operations from 6 pm on March 18 and it has no liquidity problem.

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