Top News Podcast: Edible oil import exempt from customs duty, IndiGo’s market share rises, antiviral drugs for monkeypox and more

India has allowed duty-free imports of 2 million tonnes each of crude soy oil and crude sunflower oil for the current and the next fiscal year to March 2024, a government order said on Tuesday, as part of efforts to keep a lid on local prices.

The government is firefighting inflation and trying to control the prices of wheat, cotton, edible oil, pulses, and sugar.

The edible oil cess and duty currently are at 5.5 percent, which has been brought down to nearly zero. Imports have been allowed for 20 lakh tonnes each for crude soy and crude sunflower oil until March 2024.

In this edition of Top News, CNBCTV18.com’s Kanishka Sarkar shares the latest stock market, why Kapil Sibal quit Congress, the wheat export ban, duty-free imports of edible oils, the monkeypox disease, and more.

IndiGo emerged as the preferred airline among flyers in April 2022 as the company ate into the share of peers like Air Asia, thereby seeing a sharp increase in its market. As per a report by ICICI Securities, IndiGo’s dominance in terms of market share first started showing signs in March 2022 when it went up by almost 4 percentage points to 54.8 percent.

In the subsequent month, its market share expanded to 58.9 percent, while its peer Air Asia lost its hold over its customers from 6.5 percent in March 2022 to 5.4 percent in April.

Meanwhile, Grasim is going full throttle on its plans to foray into the paints business, which may intensify competition. Global brokerage Macquarie, however, sees no threat to sector leader Asian Paints. The reason: Grasim needs time to build a brand image to carve a niche in the market.

On the political front, veteran leader Kapil Sibal has resigned from Congress. He has filed his nomination as an Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections with the support of the Samajwadi Party. A prominent member of the G23, which had sought an organisational overhaul in the Congress, Sibal's tenure as Congress' Rajya Sabha MP ends in July.