A Baseline writer is featured in Scroll today: we write that Flipkart and Ola are using bad, pro-protectionist arguments in their battles against Amazon and Uber, ones that Indian entrepreneurs used in the 1940s to protect themselves against foreign and eventually domestic competition. The result was businesses gaining profits as monopolies while customers and the Indian economy suffered from decades of low growth, and high poverty rates. 

In what is being increasingly seen as phase 2 of the country's demonetization, FM has announced customer incentives ranging from 0.75-10% on retail purchase of products like petrol, diesel and insurance products from state-run companies to encourage digital, cashless transactions. 

Stock in spotlight: The real estate firm Puravankara Projects, which posted a 56% boost in net profits in its Q2 results, and is among the top gainers today. 

Photo of the day: A boy blows bubbles to draw customers on a beach in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters