A look at the headlines in the sector right now:

  1. India was the fastest riser on the Global Competitiveness Index this year, says World Economic Forum: It moved up 16 places to the 39th spot among the 138 countries surveyed for the report. 
  2. Flipkart reportedly in final stages of talks with Walmart for $1-billion investment: The final terms of the deal have yet to be determined, and both companies have declined to divulge details. 
  3. Humans can possibly make it to Mars by 2022, says SpaceX founder Elon Musk: His vision includes a reusable spaceship to ferry 100 people to the red planet in 80 days initially and in 30 days eventually. Each ticket could cost $200,000.
  4. BlackBerry to stop hardware development business, will outsource function to partners: CEO John Chen had said in May that the company was unlikely to continue designing smartphones in-house unless they recorded profits by September.
  5. Sahara chief Subrata Roy's parole extended till October 24: The Supreme Court asked him to explain how he intended to pay more than Rs 10,000 crore that he owes to Sebi.
  6. World Bank reappoints Jim Yong Kim president for a second term: He said the institution is on its way to achieving the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
  7. Galaxy Note7 explodes in China even though Samsung had claimed those variants were safe: The Korean electronics giant had exempted the Chinese variant of the handset from a global recall, saying their batteries were not prone to overheating.
  8. Sensex, Nifty end 69, 39 points higher after three days of losses: The rise in stock markets comes as investors wait for newly-appointed Reserve Bank of India’s Governor Urjit Patel’s first monetary policy review on October 4.