The BJP and its Mahayuti allies have won 68 seats unopposed in the Maharashtra civic polls scheduled for January 15, even as the Opposition parties alleged the ruling combine used threats and money to force candidates to withdraw from the fray.
Sawant asserted that none of the Shiv Sena-UBT MPs had received any phone calls and condemned the attempts to "spread rumours" about mass desertions from the Thackeray-led party.
Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant on Friday claimed that many leaders from the opposition Shiv Sena-UBT were in touch with his party and would be inducted in phases.
Civil aviation ministry has also reached a consensus to give a five-year term to the next CMD of the ailing state-owned airline.
Even though air passenger traffic picked up last month, the overall long-term sentiment for airlines is poor, Air India chief Arvind Jadhav said on Friday.
While the responses of the candidates were predictable, depending on which side they belonged to, an interesting point slipped through when Rahul Shewale cited the Dharavi Redevelopment Project as a scheme that would add to Mumbai's importance. No big infrastructural project in Mumbai, he said, could be successful without the Centre's nod.
The CBI has closed a case against former Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav and others over alleged corruption in the appointments of general managers after the central government refused to grant its sanction to prosecute him, officials said. The agency had booked Jadhav, then general manager L P Nakhwa (now retired), and then additional general managers A Kathpalia, Amitabh Singh and Rohit Bhasin after a year-long preliminary enquiry, they said. It was alleged that Jadhav had constituted illegal/irregular promotion panel to recommend suitable candidates for promotion to the post of general manager (operations), they said.
Arvind Jadhav, a senior IAS officer and the current CMD of Air India, was sent back to parent Karnataka cadre.
The Raj Thackeray-led MNS senses an opportunity after the Shiv Sena-UBT candidate's lead fell to less than 7,000 votes in the Worli assembly segment during the recent Lok Sabha polls.
On the issue of unionism, he said that problems at hand were not being duly dealt with.
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In an open letter to the employees, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav said, "Our issues are complex and can only be resolved through sustained dialogue. Any ad hoc decision would only complicate the matter further. You should understand that at this juncture, demands of one category of employees cannot be addressed in isolation."
In the 18 months that Arvind Jadhav has been the chairman of state-owned Air India, he has faced more than one crisis.
These views were expressed by Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav at his meetings with leaders of 14 unions, where he is understood to have articulated various scenarios which could arise if costs were not managed well.
The government has not taken any decision on the communications ministry's proposal for appointing the next chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
This will be the first major electoral test after the political realignment that emerged in 2019.
Activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal had appealed to the CIC saying that the government had not provided "any information on the ground that the desired records constituted Cabinet papers and therefore could not be disclosed."
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a setback in Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra on Tuesday, with its tally dwindling by less than half compared to 2019, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar was on a roll, pocketing 30 of the 48 seats.
Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav, has finally looked towards his employees for suggestions after trying many consultants in the past for reviving the debt-ridden state-run carrier.
The constituency of Mumbai South, home to industrialists as well as high-ranking government officials, fared the worst with 47.7 percent voting.
Rohit Nandan, an Indian Administrative Service officer, and currently a joint secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation is set to become the new chairman and managing director of Air India. He will be replacing Arvind Jadhav, who is being shown the door for poor management and the galloping losses the national carrier has suffered.
The exercise, which will come into effect from July 15, would also see shuffling of eight general manager level and three deputy general manager level officers, airline sources said.
The plan for 2010-14 envisages revenue enhancement and expenditure reduction over different phases, airline sources said.
Air India on Tuesday announced the launch of daily international flights from Melbourne to Delhi from first November this year.
In early-December, Air India had appointed global consultancy firm Deloitte to vet the SBI Caps-prepared financial restructuring plan.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
Kochi will be the new headquarters of Air India Express, while Thiruvananthapuram will be the main engineering centre of the airline.
Bharatiya Janata Party's National Democratic Alliance partners have got five cabinet ministerial berths in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as against none in the outgoing government, given the party's dependence on allies for a majority in the Lok Sabha.
The employees, holding Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav responsible for the present condition of the airline, also demanded his removal and regularisation of the payment of their due salary and productivity linked incentive.
Even as the Air India Board meets on Wednesday to discuss productivity-linked incentives (PLI) and other issues, the Joint Action Committee of various trade unions has warned against imposing any decision on the employees unilaterally.
The months of April and May are favourable for airlines, a good time to recover their losses.
The hangar will be capable of accommodating two A320 family aircraft simultaneously or one B777/B747 aircraft. The facility will cost Air India Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million). Air India already has major engineering units in Mumbai and Delhi for maintenance of aircraft and engines.
National Democratic Alliance nominee Om Birla was elected as Lok Sabha speaker on Wednesday after a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was adopted through voice vote, capping intense debate on the issue with the opposition in a rare move proposing its own candidate.
Air India top brass on Thursday met leaders of two pilots' unions and assured them that their problems would be looked into, especially those relating to the wage structure.
The National Aviation Company Ltd, which runs Air India, today named Gustav Baldauf as its chief operating officer.
AI's chairman and managing director, Arvind Jadhav, and the ministry's joint secretary and airline board member Prashant Sukul, along with other senior officials, met half the unions today in Delhi. The meeting will continue on Friday and they will also meet the rest of the 14 unions.
The panel, which is a sub-committee of the Air India board, was set up on Tuesday following which the executive pilots withdrew their five-day long agitation against slashing of their productivity-linked incentive and flying allowance by half.
The Air India board has decided to reduce by 50 per cent the productivity-linked incentives or flying allowance payable to its employees.
Some of the operational goals the carrier has set for itself are 25 million domestic and 15 million international passengers by 2015.
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said the government was considering extending financial support to Air India.
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