Air India has been a subject of its passengers' ire this week as more than half of its flights have been delayed, primarily because of an old crew rostering system. Due to the existing system, the airline has not been able to handle the disruption created by cyclone 'Biparjoy' on India's western coast. The sudden grounding of two planes also added to the carrier's woes.
'Even where we are now today, the growth rates are very good, but we need to get to 8-9 per cent growth in the years to come.'
Sanjive Narain, owner of Assam's oldest news channel, and Sanjay Aditya Singh, promoter of a cabin crew training academy, are coming together to launch a regional airline providing business and premium economy services in the Northeast. Jettwings Airways will be based in Guwahati and will connect places with twin-class Embraer E175 aircraft. The airline has secured an initial no-objection clearance from the civil aviation ministry and plans to launch services in October.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty Next 50 Index could undergo large-scale changes if the proposed tweaks to its computation methodology get implemented. In a discussion paper floated recently, NSE Indices, which owns and manages a portfolio of over 350 indices under the Nifty brand, proposed that only stocks that are traded in the futures and options (F&O) segment can be part of the index. Currently, as many as 11 non-F&O stocks are part of the Nifty Next 50 Index, which, as the name suggests, represents the next rung of large and liquid securities after the Nifty50.
Close on heels of the launch of Gift Nifty (earlier SGX Nifty), domestic exchanges are pushing for extension of trading hours for the onshore derivatives market, said sources. Bourses are waiting for a final approval from market regulator Sebi on the proposal to keep the derivatives market open for longer hours, they said. The move is aimed at attracting more trading members for onshore futures and options (F&O) contracts amid risk that global investors could prefer trading at Gift City given the tax benefits.
The addition of new flights at airports will now be based on passenger-handling capacity at security checkpoints, according to the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). The civil aviation security regulator issued directions in this regard on May 22 in a move to reduce congestion and delays inside airport terminals. Following this, airports will have to check passenger-handling capacity at security checkpoints before allotting slots.
Around 200 pilots of Go First, the cash-strapped airline that suspended operations on May 2, have joined Air India. As many as 75 of them started training with the Tata-owned airline on Monday. As Go First tries to salvage its operations, it has announced additional pay or retention allowance of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 for captains and first officers, respectively, with effect from June 1.
Boom, bust or a bit of both: as the jury bides time before ruling on the US 'recession', the economy's vital signs at a perplexing time of high-interest rates, still-punishing inflation, and surprisingly strong economic gains are a study of a growing debate over whether the world's largest economy is barrelling into a new downturn. With the US Federal Reserve's (Fed's) inflation fighters attempting the risky pursuit of 'pillow-soft landings' and its economy sending out mixed signals, if there is indeed a recession, it could spell trouble for domestic equities and corporate earnings growth.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has received Rs 300 crore from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) following relief from the Supreme Court (SC), which is hearing an appeal by the market regulator in the colocation case. The court on March 20 asked Sebi to return Rs 300 crore to the NSE from the Rs 1,107 crore the exchange had deposited as part of the disgorgement in the case. The NSE had given an undertaking that it will return the entire amount to Sebi if the latter wins its appeal before the SC.
State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which completes one year of its listing on Tuesday, presents a sorry scorecard as far as its stock market performance goes. Shares of the insurance behemoth are down 40 per cent over their issue price of Rs 949 to Rs 567 apiece. The Sensex, on the other hand, has risen 14 per cent in the past one year.
Both Jet Airways and Go First have met with a similar fate of landing up in insolvency, albeit for different reasons. Whether Go First will be able to avoid the sharp erosion in value like in the case of Jet, experts say, will depend on how quickly it is able to restart operations and retain its slots at airports. Go First, owned by the Wadia group, filed for voluntary corporate insolvency resolution on May 2 due to inadequate capacity utilisation that led to a cash crunch.
The infighting between the two promoters of Hikal-Baba Kalyani and sister Sugandha Hiremath-has put the company's growth at stake, InGovern has said in a note. The corporate governance firm has called for a change in the management and an overhaul of its board to protect the interest of minority shareholders, who own almost a third of the specialty chemicals company. The Kalyani and Hiremath families are mired in a legal dispute, with the latter seeking transfer of ownership of shares held by the Kalyani group, citing nearly three-decade old family arrangement.
Go First chief executive officer Kaushik Khona and tribunal-appointed interim resolution professional Abhilash Lal on Thursday reached out to the airline's staff, seeking their support for revival. While Khona said the company had taken all steps for the airline's revival, Lal put forward the view it would have to raise funds. Employee engagement took place a day after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted the airline's insolvency plea on Wednesday and ordered a moratorium on recoveries.
Its association with India is over 70 years old and spans both civil and military aviation. The Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft used by the air force beginning the 1940s and the iconic Boeing 747 aircraft flown by Air India, both had Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The Indian Air Force's present-day, heavy-lift C-17 Globemaster III and the yet-to-be-inducted C-295 planes, too, have P&W power plants.
With markets getting back their mojo after four months, small- and mid-cap shares raced ahead of large caps in April. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 7.5 per cent - its biggest monthly advance in 10 months - and outperformed the benchmark Nifty 50 index by 350 basis points. The Nifty Midcap 100 index soared 5.9 per cent, most since August.
Jet's air operator certificate will lapse on May 19.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) decision on Wednesday to relax restrictions on banks operating in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) related to the repatriation of idle funds in foreign currency accounts (FCA) could give a fillip to trading in foreign stocks at the GIFT City.
Employees of Go First, which has filed for bankruptcy, hope that the airline will fly out of the crisis with government support but some are already scouting for work. Some Go First pilots have joined airlines in West Asia in recent weeks and others have approached IndiGo, India's largest domestic airline. Calls to IndiGo's human resources and operations department increased after Go First said on Tuesday it will suspend flights for three days starting May 3, sources said.
A nine-day Kashmir trip ended on a sour note for the Shah family of Ahmedabad with an unscheduled diversion and an expensive road ride back home. The Shahs were among hundreds of passengers whose travel plans went awry with Go First suspending all flights till Friday. "We were supposed to travel from Srinagar to Ahmedabad via Mumbai on Tuesday.
Actively managed mutual fund (MF) schemes had been at the receiving end over the past few years for their inability to beat their benchmarks. However, the slump in shares of Adani Group companies - two of which are part of the benchmark National Stock Exchange Nifty50 index - have helped them improve their performance vis--vis exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or index funds.