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.
Ravinder Kumar was sleeping after finishing his night shift Friday morning when a call from Indira Gandhi International Airport Police Station turned his life upside down.
A day after FIPB cleared the Tata-Singapore Airlines' (SIA) airline venture, Tata group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and SIA chief Goh Choon Phong on Friday met Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh exuding confidence of launching flights by May-June next year.
India and the US on Thursday said they are looking forward to the reconvening of the India-US Trade Policy Forum later this year to further enhance trade relationship and identify new areas for engagement.
The private sector's new project announcements in the quarter ending March were among the highest on record. The value of new private sector project announcements for the three months ending March 2024 was Rs 9.8 trillion, shows data from tracker Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). This is the second-highest on record in data going back to 2009.
The new regulatory body would be called the Civil Aviation Authority and would replace the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
'We may bite the bullet and draw up plans for privatisation.' 'If that is done now, the sale of the government stake will fetch money; a delay will see erosion in whatever value is left in these banks,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday concluded a crucial visit to Male, assuring the country's top leadership that the Maldives remains an important partner of India in maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region.
Richest Indian Gautam Adani-led group's flagship firm on Wednesday filed an offer letter with stock exchanges for a proposed Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO). The FPO of Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) is planned to open on January 27 and close on January 31, according to the offer letter. Of the Rs 20,000 crore proceeds of the FPO, Rs 10,869 crore will be used for green hydrogen projects, work at the existing airports and construction of a greenfield expressway.
If the concerns over risking political capital are overcome, the long-term gains for the Indian economy will be immense, asserts A K Bhattacharya.
"India-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) will improve passenger safety and therefore caps the success of the 2005 Open Skies Agreement, which opens more routes, includes more airlines, and greatly improves the ability for companies to engage in commerce between the US and India," USIBC chief Ron Somers said.
"India-US Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) will improve passenger safety and therefore caps the success of the 2005 Open Skies Agreement, which opens more routes, includes more airlines, and greatly improves the ability for companies to engage in commerce between the US and India," USIBC chief Ron Somers said.
A total of Rs 30,000 crore was allocated for five years to Air India by the United Progressive Alliance government in its second term.
'This trend will continue as long as the bull run continues.'
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.
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 26 sectors specified by the RBI include automobiles, power, tourism, cement, chemicals, gems and jewellery, logistic, mining, manufacturing, real estate, and shipping among others.
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.
Some sectors like aviation, hospitality, travel and tourism, and automobile have witnessed zero cash flow since the lockdown began.
Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh said it is a major step to place the right talent for the right role.
The number of international air passengers entering the country will be 84 million while the domestic passengers will jump to 336 million.
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.
After the Russian aviation sector was hit by crippling Western sanctions for war against Ukraine, China refused to supply Russia with aircraft parts.
The number of passengers handled by all Indian carriers registered a whopping fall of minus 13.7 per cent, as per the latest figures of gross domestic product for the second quarter (July-September) of 2008-09, released by the government. However, the amount of cargo carried by the aviation sector grew modestly by 5.7 per cent over the second quarter of 2007-08, the figures showed.
The civil aviation ministry has mandated airlines and ground-handling companies to phase out airport equipment older than 12 years and switch to electric or fuel-efficient variants by May 2022. While companies have welcomed the ministry's green initiative, they said that the deadline for implementation is tight. This is especially in the wake of financial challenges faced by the aviation sector during the pandemic.
The government on Friday announced it had entered into an agreement with the United States to establish an Aviation Cooperation Programme to modernise the sector's infrastructure.
For the first time in 13 years, since Jet Airways' A330 planes exited the airline's fleet in around 2010, an Indian wide-body aircraft will have a Rolls-Royce-powered engine, with Air India ordering 40 Airbus A350 planes. On Tuesday, Air India announced its mega aircraft order for 470 aircraft, including A350 planes. The A350 aircraft, which will come in two variants, are powered solely by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines and the local team has begun work to assist Air India with its aircraft-induction plans.
Citing security concerns the Home Ministry has opposed hike in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) caps in sectors like aviation and telecom, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
'I think some of us, like Mukesh Ambani, myself and those of us who head industrial units, ought to really focus on what we can really do to make the world a safer place, maybe 50 or 100 years from now.' 'For instance, how can we deal with climate change and global warming, right now?' 'The effects of it may not be felt now; in fact, we may pay a price for it today, but it will help the generations to follow.'
The disappointment of the year is government's failure in finalising the re-drafted aviation policy.
Richard Branson-promoted Virgin Atlantic Airways is interested in investing in the Indian civil aviation sector once the Union government
Air travel will now become a little expensive as the government has decided to increase the lower limit on airfares by five per cent amid rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday. The upper limit on airfares will remain as it is for now. Just a month back, the Centre had increased the lower and upper limits on domestic airfares by 10-30 per cent due to rising ATF prices. While announcing resumption of scheduled domestic flights in May last year, the aviation ministry had placed limits on airfares through seven bands classified on the basis of flight duration.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (which represents all EU countries) has also raised the red flag on the issue.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
Air India and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), a player in aerospace and defence solutions, on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government for an investment of ~2,300 crore in the state's aerospace and defence sector. The strategic move is expected to enhance Karnataka's aerospace ecosystem and help create over 1,600 direct and 25,000 indirect jobs in the state.
In the previous decade, the government, with Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister, saw the introduction of an irrational 5/20 policy.
Loans for Indian airlines have dried up as banks have become cautious to lend to the sector.
In the months to come, the skies above promise to be a captivating theatre of action, where helicopters play starring roles, ferrying leaders, and echoing the pulse of democracy.
Right from the early days of liberalisation, there have been political controversies surrounding several cases that landed on the FIPB table and which, in turn, have often led to court battles.
