A court in Canada has ordered the seizure of amounts collected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on behalf of Air India and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Separate orders were passed on November 24 and December 21 on pleas by shareholders of Devas Multimedia Private Limited who have filed multiple petitions to enforce arbitration awards against the Indian government. According to a Devas spokesperson, more than $30 million has been seized to date under the IATA action.
While traditional automakers in India are reeling under a global shortage of semiconductors, the country's electric vehicle (EV) makers, too, are now facing a shortage of lithium-ion batteries, a key raw material. The soaring prices of metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt, which are the primary constituents of the cell, as well as supply chain bottlenecks, are also pushing up the cost of batteries. Battery manufacturers say that prices have been increasing every quarter since the beginning of 2021.
South Korean automaker Kia Motors says it will look to be a premium only brand and stay away from the entry level segment like sedans and hatchbacks. Hardeep Singh Brar, the company's India Vice-President and Head (Sales and Marketing), said that customers have accepted Kia as a premium brand. In the mass market Kia is considered to be the most premium brand. "Customers like the features and they are willing to pay for them. So, we have consciously decided that if customers like us a premium brand, let's stick to that. It is a conscious decision to stay premium and operate in that segment of the mass market," Brar said.
The top hashtag in India was #COVID19, as the country grappled with the deadly second wave of the pandemic.
'As the demand for transferable skills that can be remotely applied increases, the need for tech-based courses is on the rise/'
'Everyone says never waste a crisis.' 'When we went into Covid and we were in total lockdown, we were at work.' 'The planes were not flying and we wondered what to do.' 'We looked at each of our performance metrics -- what are customers complaining about, how do employees feel, how do investors feel?'
'I can tell shareholders we're going to be very responsible with our capital, we're going to be absolutely execution focused.'
'Our proactive detection rate for hate speech in India is close to 97 per cent -- which means that of the hate speech content we remove, we detect 97 per cent of it proactively, even before anyone reports it.'
Even as the gaming industry battles multiple regulations in different Indian states, it has received more than double the amount of investment this year compared to 2020. Industry watchers attribute this to the growing popularity of gaming, spurred by the pandemic, and the innovative business models gaming firms have built. According to data from industry tracker Venture Intelligence, investment in India's gaming sector in 2021 has more than doubled to $794 million, as against a total investment of $339 million last year. In 2019, this number was $176 million. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global (Dream11), Sequoia Capital India (Mobile Premier League), WinZO (Griffin Capital Partners), Tencent (Dream11) and Matrix Partners (Zupee) have pumped money into the sector.
Their startup investments number 13 so far, compared to 17 deals in 2020.
Mumbai-based Dream11, which is run by Sporta Technologies Private Limited, reported a profit of Rs 181 crore (Rs 1.81 billion) in FY2020, making it one of the few Indian consumer-tech unicorns to have turned profitable.
With better utilisation of slots, foreign flying rights, and greater international connections, the operator of India's largest airport feels a privatised Air India will bring commercial benefit to Delhi airport and help it revive quicker from the pandemic shock. Delhi is the largest hub for Air India, with most of its long-haul flights to the US and Europe being operated from here. The airport plans to give its most modern terminal 3 (T3) exclusively to the Tata Group.
Urban Company, the home services firm, announced a 12-point programme on Thursday to improve partner earnings and livelihood for all partners on its platform in India. The announcement comes after most women partners on the platform staged a protest last Friday, demanding better layouts and safer working conditions. Among the provisions in the 12-point programme are reduction of highest commissions in the beauty category, in which most of Urban Company's female partners work.
India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), is focused on getting 50 per cent of its customers' car-financing transactions executed through its Smart Finance platform by next year. Shashank Srivastava, executive director-sales, MSIL, said this will help the company turn its website into a single-window channel through which customers can select their models, find dealers, and arrange financing. He said there is a likelihood that 100 per cent of its customers availing of financing will take it through Smart Finance. To date, the company has disbursed Rs 6,500-crore loans via Smart Finance to around 100,000 customers, accounting for 28 per cent of all finance-based car-purchase transactions for the company.
In the season of aviation action, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air has secured the crucial no-objection certificate (NoC) from the civil aviation ministry. It expects to start operations next summer. The airline will now have to apply for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for operations permit. Aviation sector has been in the limelight with the Tata Group winning the Air India bid last week.
'It is going to be extremely rapid and anybody who is not there, be it investor, manufacturer, supplier, will miss out.'
Ahead of two crucial audits, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has proposed to allow deputy director generals (DGs) and officers of Indian Air Force (IAF) to apply for the post of chief of India's aviation regulator. The current head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Arun Kumar, has been promoted as secretary and is expected to move out some time soon. DGCA has four Deputy DGs with experience in different fields of aviation.
Time was when you turned on your car's ignition, all that happened was that the mechanical system fired up your engine and made it run. Today, the moment you do so, your stereo system probably lights up, connects to the Bluetooth on your smartphone, and lets you make calls through an audio assistant or play music from your phone, which you can hear on the car's speakers. All these smart features in a car are powered by semiconductors, or chips, as they are commonly called.
In order to gauge the financial impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry, comparing it to what happened after the 9/11 terrorist attack is a helpful yardstick.
A large part of the work that CEO Sumit Gupta does is focused on educating users and the larger community about investing in cryptocurrencies, reports Neha Alawadhi.
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