Minimum one-way air fares between Delhi and London are priced upwards of Rs one lakh in August due to limited number of seats, data collected by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows. The United Kingdom has included India in the amber list and the change came into effect from Sunday. With this, passengers from India needn't undergo institutional quarantine and can self-isolate at home for 10 days.
The government should convert Vodafone Idea's (Vi) debt into equity to avoid a duopoly in the telecom sector, Deutsche Bank Research said in its report on Monday. This, the bank suggested, would be the only viable solution in the backdrop of the Supreme Court dismissing the telecom company's application for recomputation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.
Cash-strapped telco Vodafone Idea's proposal for investment of up to Rs 15,000 crore through foreign direct investment (FDI) has been approved by the Union government, according to officials. A top-level group, comprising representatives from the ministries of home affairs, external affairs, finance and commerce and industry, took the decision. The nod, which is an enabling provision, would help the financially-stressed company raise funds to pay up some of its dues linked to adjusted gross revenue (AGR), reduce debts and use the money for operational expenses.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced new postpaid plans and discontinued some previous ones. "In the post-pandemic world, an abundance of high-speed data is increasingly becoming a key need for customers as work from home and online education is the new normal. "In this context, Airtel has further simplified its postpaid plans to offer industry-leading data benefits backed by a 5G-ready network and superior digital-first customer care. "The plans also come with a range of exclusive benefits such as bundled content and business productivity tools," Airtel said in a press release.
Tata Sons has started the process of due diligence of state-owned Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. Sources said the group has appointed Bain and Company and Seabury Group for this purpose. Once complete, a financial bid will be submitted and a deal to take over the airline is likely to fructify by end of this year or even earlier, people involved in the process said. Simultaneously, the group has brought in veterans in the aviation business from Delta and United Airlines to prepare a plan for post-merger integration of Air India with its existing airline ventures. Tata Sons operates Vistara - a 51:49 percent joint venture with Singapore Airlines and Air Asia India, in which Tatas hold 83.67 per cent stakes.
The Indian Navy has expressed reservations in vacating 100 Mhz of the spectrum, proposed to be sold in the tender expected next year, sources said. This could delay the Centre's plans to proceed with the 5G auctions in 2022. A department of telecom (DoT) official said, "The Indian Navy is showing reluctance in vacating the spectrum from the 3.3 GHz-3.4 GHz band that it is using. "Unless there is some traction with them on this issue, we can't seek consultation from TRAI." The 3300 MHz-3600 MHz (or 3.3GHz-3.6GHz) will be auctioned for the first time in the proposed 5G auctions, likely next year.
Serbia has become one of the transit points for Indians heading to Canada and the US. Canada requires passengers from India to take an RT-PCR test from a third country, while the US wants them to spend 14 days outside of India. As a result, many students are taking the Serbia route to Canada, and the US.
As and when Jet Airways applies for slots, these would be allocated among all airlines according to guidelines, without any claim of historicity in favour of any airline. Slots would be given to Jet only from the available remaining pool.
At least 95 per cent of Jet Airways employees will have to give their consent to the Kalrock-Jalan consortium's proposal or lose benefits offered to them under the revival plan. Voting on the consortium's offer for employees and workmen began on Monday and will go on till August 4. The National Company Law Tribunal cleared the consortium proposal to revive the airline on June 22. While Jet Airways had admitted claims of around Rs 15,000 crore, the consortium has offered to settle claims of Rs 475 crore of financial and non financial creditors.
Road construction witnessed a near 60 per cent year-on-year jump in the first two months of financial year 2021-22 (FY22), despite restrictions being imposed in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19. Around 1,470 km of roads were constructed during the first two months of the current fiscal, as against 847 km in the corresponding period last year, according to official figures. However, these are provisional numbers as the state public works departments of Maharashtra and Goa are yet to provide data.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium - new owners of Jet Airways - has got an assurance from around 30 airports that if the airline restarts operations, 170 pairs of slots can be made available. However, whether those slots will be according to the airline's demand will depend on the order of the insolvency court, which is slated to come next week. Sources said the new management feels it is extremely important that some of those slots are restored or else its business plan of operating Jet as a premium carrier will not be viable.
The Navi Mumbai international airport will boast three interconnected multi-level terminals with a lotus-inspired design, according to the master plan prepared by its outgoing developer. The GVK group, which completed 15 years of airport business, shared the first look of the Navi Mumbai airport. The group in 2018 had commissioned British firm Zaha Hadid Architects to design the main terminal and air traffic control tower. The master plan of the airport was approved by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) in 2019.
Airlines are slashing salaries and re-negotiating vendor contracts as drastic fall in passengers has hurt revenue. Go First has cut staff salaries by around 16 per cent while IndiGo and SpiceJet are enforcing a leave without pay (LWP) policy and pay by the hour structure respectively to prune expenses. Vistara, which reversed pay cuts for junior staff including managers and cabin crew in March, is not touching employee salaries at the moment and instead focusing on vendor renegotiation and maximising cargo revenue. An Air India executive said efforts are on to pay salaries by 7th or 8th of June.
EU and UK laws require airlines to incorporate data protection measures and report data breach to regulators within 72 hours. Non-compliance can invite steep fines.
Total wireless subscribers increased from 1.1 billion, in January to 1.2 billion in February, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.72 per cent.
Amid oxygen shortage and a faltering health system in the country, India is seeing over 300,000 cases daily.
The Russian vaccine has been registered in more than 55 countries and is gaining recognition in the virtual world -- being the only to have its own Facebook page, YouTube channel and a Twitter handle, reports Aneesh Phadnis
'Our automakers export 50 per cent of what they manufacture and once the policy comes into play, which is in the next 2-3 years, we would become a Rs 10 trillion industry.'
'We completed Rs 17 trillion worth of projects in the first term and currently Rs 9 trillion worth of contracts are under construction.'
According to the order, all factories producing essential goods and services will remain operational at full capacity.