Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the NS-25 mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday upheld an NCLT order allowing crisis-hit Go First's voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings. A two-member NCLAT bench asked several aircraft lessors of Go First opposing insolvency, to approach National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for any remedy. "The order dated May 10, 2023 allowing insolvency is upheld," said the NCLAT bench headed by Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pitch for electing a strong and stable government in an uncertain world beset by geopolitical tensions as the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its manifesto, prioritising development and welfare while shunning populist measures and contentious issues like the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
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 five Mexican nationals killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Nepal near Mount Everest on Tuesday visited India before touring the Himalayan nation for sightseeing.
The DGCA will probe the incident and the air traffic controller concerned has been derostered, one of the officials told PTI.
The policy has been finalised after nearly eight months since the Ministry came out with the revised draft in October 2015.
Whether this happens because DGCA actually cares about the future of the national carrier or for other motives is not clear.
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
Stocks in the automotive, financial, cement, metal, and hotel sectors are likely to benefit if the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes back to power for a third time. The key investment themes have been identified after analysing the Sankalp Patra - the party's manifesto for the next five years - released on Sunday.
Prime Minister Modi is to address the nation at 8 pm on Thursday and is expected to talk about issues relating to coronavirus and the efforts to combat the pandemic that has claimed more than 7,500 lives across the world.
President Mohamed Muizzu on Wednesday said by bolstering the defence capabilities of the Maldives, the country will soon reach a point where there is no 'foreign' military presence, weeks after he sought the withdrawal of Indian defence personnel from the archipelago nation.
The fledgling Akasa Air has told the Delhi high court it is in a "state of crisis" following the "sudden and abrupt" resignation of over 40 pilots who left the airline without serving the mandatory notice period. The airline and its CEO Vinay Dube approached the high court with their petition on September 14, seeking a direction to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to take coercive action against these pilots for their "irresponsible actions". The high court has fixed the plea for hearing on Friday.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu's party secured a 'supermajority' in Parliament by winning over 60 seats in Sunday's crucial parliamentary election, seen as a litmus test for the pro-Beijing politician whose policies are being closely watched by both India and China amidst regional power dynamics.
In 2015, India's domestic aviation market clocked 81 million flights.
As Go First awaits the NCLT verdict on its voluntary insolvency resolution plea, lessors have sought deregistration of nine more aircraft of the crisis-hit airline. In one week, various lessors have approached aviation regulator DGCA for deregistration and repossession of a total of 45 planes of Go First. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is set to pronounce the order on the carrier's petition on Wednesday.
In their pre-budget expectations, they also asked the government to assess the option of developing unused airstrips located in various parts of the country to boost air connectivity.
It is possible to be blind to this and pretend to carry on as if nothing has happened but that will not change the reality, asserts Aakar Patel.
Passengers of a San Francisco-bound Air India flight faced a harrowing time due to an inordinate delay and some of them fainted as the aircraft's air-conditioning system was non-functional.
Reduction in fuel price was supposed to bring back good luck for Indian airlines. But with the global spread of coronavirus, airlines are being forced to rejig their network, cut flights, and delay launches.
'There are legions of unemployed degree holders across rural and semi-urban belts in Maharashtra. Now, they aren't finding brides.' 'This issue has now snowballed into a social crisis. In 2014 and 2019, they had voted for the BJP.'
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
The Maldives still considers India a friend, the tourism-dependent country's economic minister has said while defending President Mohamed Muizzu's stand against the presence of "foreign soldiers" in the archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean.
India has expressed concern about the movement of the Xiang Yang Hong 03 vessel in Indian Ocean waters and also prevailed on Sri Lanka to refuse permission for the ship to dock at Colombo port.
Two top global aviation bodies, ICAO and IATA, appealed to governments, including that of India and China -- both growing aviation hubs -- to follow suit and allow open market access to their airlines, soon after the signing ceremony of the pact yesterday in Montebello, Canada.
In India, domestic airlines have not secured any relief from the government and are reporting 50-55 per cent loads as domestic air travel resumed on May 25 after two-month suspension.
In the previous decade, the government, with Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister, saw the introduction of an irrational 5/20 policy.
As severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' initiated its landfall process between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal on Sunday evening, authorities took swift action, evacuating over 1 lakh people from vulnerable areas of the state to safety.
The Indian embassy in France has reached and obtained consular access.
Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Tuesday sparked a controversy by admitting that he carried matchboxes in airplanes, without them being confiscated, after he became the Union civil aviation minister.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
The deal will let India draw upon the resources of the Federal Aviation Administration to modernise its infrastructure.
Corporate margins and profits in India remain vulnerable to changes in crude oil prices in the international market. Historical quarterly data from listed companies (excluding banks, finance and insurance, oil and gas, and power sectors) indicate an adverse correlation between corporate margins and crude oil prices.
The Maldives will get free 'non-lethal' military equipment and training from China's military under a newly inked agreement with Beijing, President Mohamed Muizzu has said, underlining that it would further strengthen the Indian Ocean island nation's independence and autonomy.
India on Thursday said it remains committed to take forward its development agenda with the Maldives, including implementation of various welfare projects in the island nation.
The government on Monday decided to call off the strategic divestment of Pawan Hans as the successful bidding consortium Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd was disqualified in view of pending legal cases. Pawan Hans is a 51:49 joint venture of the government and ONGC. The government had in April last year decided to sell the helicopter service provider for Rs 211.14 crore to Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd -- a consortium of Big Charter Private Ltd, Maharaja Aviation Private Ltd and Almas Global Opportunity Fund SPC.
According to the Pentagon report, the PLA is creating options for dissuading, deterring, and defeating external intervention in the Indo-Pacific region.
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.
DGCA's move seeks to ban perfumes for pilots as they have alcohol and can affect the results of breathanalyser tests. But the FAA and EASA have different standards, says senior journalist Shobha John.
The depiction of screechy jingoism within India-Pakistan dynamic is still a wet dream for Bollywood film-makers, observes Mayur Sanap.
