Indian state holds new star losing head in cabin (7)
I believe the answer is:
gondola
'cabin' is the definition.
(enclosed unit in a gondola lift)
'indian state holds new star losing head in' is the wordplay.
'indian state' becomes 'goa' (I've seen this before).
'holds new' becomes 'n' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'star' becomes 'idol' (idol is a kind of star).
'losing head' means to remove the first letter.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'idol' with its initial letter taken off is 'dol'.
'n'+'dol'='ndol'
'goa' enclosing 'ndol' is 'GONDOLA'.
(Other definitions for gondola that I've seen before include "Traditionally used on Venetian canals" , "Craft for Venetian canals" , "Traditional rowboat of Venice" , "Venetian canal boat" , "Boat on Venetian canals" .)