Nearly two months after the urination incident on its New York-New Delhi flight, Air India on Tuesday said it has closed the internal probe into the case and will assist the flight's pilot-in-command with an appeal against the suspension of his licence by DGCA as the airline deems the action as "excessive".
If all 102 grounded planes could fly, there will theoretically be 400 more Delhi-Mumbai flights every day.
Shareholders of Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of Tata group companies, have approved the reappointment of N Chandrasekaran as chairman for another five-year term despite its single largest shareholder the Shapoorji Pallonji family abstaining from voting, according to sources. In February this year, the Board of Tata Sons had approved the reappointment of Chandrasekaran as executive chairman for another five years till February 2027, subject to shareholders' approval. At the shareholders meeting held on Monday, the proposal for Chandrasekaran's reappointment for a second term needed more than 50 per cent of votes as it was an ordinary resolution.
With the Supreme Court not getting into the valuation part and leaving it to the two parties, lawyers said there was nothing much for Mistry Group to negotiate.
The US has ordered Tata-group owned Air India to pay a whopping $121.5 million as refunds and $1.4 million as penalties for extreme delays in providing refunds to passengers due to the cancellation or change in flights, mostly during the pandemic, officials said. Air India is among the six airlines that have agreed to cough up a total of over $600 million as refunds, the US Department of Transportation said on Monday. Air India's policy of "refund on request" is contrary to the Department of Transportation policy, which mandates air carriers to legally refund tickets in the case of cancellation or change in flight, officials said.
The government will start working on selling the ground-handling arm of erstwhile national carrier Air India and the Expression of Interest (EoI) is expected in the next fiscal, an official said. "We already have the Cabinet approval for selling the subsidiaries of Air India. "So we will come out with an EoI inviting bids for one of the ground-handling arms in the next fiscal," an official told PTI.
Tata Group's infrastructure and construction arm, Tata Projects, has bagged the contract to construct the upcoming Noida International Airport at Jewar, in Uttar Pradesh. As part of the contract, Tata Projects will construct the terminal, runway, airside infrastructure, roads, utilities, landside facilities and other ancillary buildings at the airport, Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) said in a statement on Friday. YIAPL is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Swiss developer Zurich Airport International AG and has been incorporated as a Special Purpose Vehicle to develop Noida International Airport. In 2019, Zurich Airport International AG won the bid to develop the airport.
J R D Tata and Air India... Mrigank Warrier explores one of India's eternal love stories.
Members of the Parsi community, business leaders and politicians were among those who attended the cremation.
Indian companies are planning to increase investments in the new year to expand capacity, acquire companies, and go on a hiring spree, a survey of top executives showed. They, however, cited rising costs, weak consumer demand, and increasing interest rates as major concerns for 2023 which may impact their plans.
Tata Group-owned Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday apologised for a flyer urinating on a fellow female passenger on a flight from New York in November, and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the airline is reviewing policy of serving alcohol on flights.
Holding that Air India's conduct appeared to be 'unprofessional', aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for 'dereliction' of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident.
After a hiatus of nearly two decades, the government's programme to privatise state-owned firms restarted with the handing over of debt-laden national carrier Air India to the Tata Group. With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of the 'Maharaja', this would be the highest-ever amount garnered through privatisation, and is even more than the cumulative sum mopped up through strategic sales from 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had in October last year inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Tatas would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
The sources said that during the boarding, the male passenger behaved in an unruly manner and touched the female cabin crew member inappropriately.
The Adani group has the maximum number of companies in the trillion club at five, followed by the Tata group (four).
TCS is confident of achieving a double-digit revenue growth in the current fiscal and will be targeting a similar performance in FY24 as well, a senior executive said on Tuesday. The largest IT services exporter's ability to achieve the number in FY24 will hinge on how the macroeconomic situation, including geopolitical tensions, commodity price pressures, inflation and financial tightening worries, play out, chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam told PTI. "(For) this year (FY23), probably we are there (double-digit growth).
Tata Group-owned Air India, under its new chief executive officer and managing director Campbell Wilson, is optimising its domestic strategy under which the carrier is "densifying" its presence on metro-to-metro routes and exiting from unviable ones, Business Standard has learnt. Wilson took charge on July 25. Air India has increased its flights on metro-to-metro routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Hyderabad-Mumbai between June and November this year.
'He was the most thoughtful corporate person I encountered.'
The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking to set aside the Air India divestment process on the allegation that the methodology adopted by the government in the valuation of the national carrier was "arbitrary, illegal and against public interest". The order was passed by a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh. The court said a detailed order will be uploaded. "Dr. Subramanian Swamy, sir we are dismissing this matter...," the bench said.
Soon after the Supreme Court of India upheld all the appeals filed by the Tata group and set aside the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal reinstating Cyrus Mistry as group chairman, Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons and chairman of Tata Trusts, took to Twitter to share his views.
'I think Ratan felt he had to do everything that he could to retain control of the company started by his forefathers, because that was the first priority and nothing else mattered compared to that.'
In an internal communication to airlines' employees, he reflected on the urinating incident to say that "the repulsion felt by the affected passenger is totally understandable and we share her distress.
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group was among "multiple" entities who on Monday put in preliminary bids for buying the government's stake in loss-making carrier Air India.
The country's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services on Monday opened the fourth-quarter earnings season with a stellar set of numbers, crossing the Rs 50,000 crore revenue mark for the first time and earning a net income of Rs 9,926 crore, registering a growth of 7.4 per cent year-on-year. The company said its revenue jumped 15.8 per cent to Rs 50,591 crore in the reporting quarter on an annualised basis. Many analysts were expecting the Tata group flagship to report over Rs 10,000 crore of net income and revenue to cross the Rs 50,000 crore mark this quarter.
The current operating environment remains highly volatile and persistent inflation will likely impact demand across categories, Tata Consumer Products Ltd chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday. To navigate through these "short-term bumps" in this uncertain environment, the company will focus on strong execution, maintaining agility and nimbleness," he said while addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting (AGM). "Geo-Political tensions, supply chain challenges, and demand-supply mismatches in crude and several other commodities are driving persistent inflation, which will likely impact demand across categories.
The NCLAT, in its December 18, 2019 order, had restrained the company, its board of directors and shareholders from exercising the power under the article against minority members except in exceptional circumstances and in the interest of company. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde dealt with this issue in its 282-page verdict which set aside the NCLAT's order that had restored Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the USD 100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate.
Veteran industrialist Ratan Tata was conferred the title of "Global Visionary of Sustainable Business and Peace" by the Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce (FIICC) for epitomising "unity, peace and sustainability". "Ratan Tata's support toward Israel has been unstinted. His commitment to put India on the global map with dignity and respect has been noted by each and everyone. "A man respected by the business communities of all the three countries - India, Israel and UAE - he epitomises unity, peace and sustainability," the president of the bilateral chamber, Gul Kripalani, said.
A strict enforcement of seat belt norms for rear passengers would be more effective than making an alarm go off when people do not belt up, according to officials at car manufacturers. Their comments came a day after Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister for road transport and highways, announced that seat belt alarms would be made mandatory for passengers in the rear seat of a car. "We have taken a decision that there will be a provision that the car seat belt alarm should beep when the rear seat rider is not wearing a seat belt. "We will impose fines if rear seat riders are not wearing seat belts.
The government will transfer about Rs 16,000 crore of unpaid fuel bills and other pending dues that Air India owes to suppliers, to a special purpose vehicle before handing over the loss-making airline to the Tata Group, a senior official said. Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL), which will hold non-core assets of Air India such as land and building, will also be saddled with 75 per cent of the airline's debt that the Tata Group is not taking over. Besides the debt, the excess liability going to AIAHL comprises unpaid fuel bills to oil companies, airport operators and vendors, said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management - the department running the privatisation programme of the government.
The government on Monday issued a letter of intent (LoI) confirming the sale of its 100 per cent stake in loss-making Air India to Tata Group for Rs 18,000 crore, a senior official said. Last week, the government had accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of salt-to-software conglomerate, to pay Rs 2,700 crore in cash and takeover Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt. Subsequent to that, an LoI has now been issued to Tata confirming the government's willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the airline.
It is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company.
Domestic air passenger volume spiked 70.46 per cent in October to 89.85 lakh over the same month of 2020, DGCA data showed on Thursday. The Indian carriers had flown 52.71 lakh passengers in October last year. It may be recalled that domestic traffic along with international flight services remained shut for two months until May 25, 2020, when scheduled air services were resumed in a graded manner.
Air India's handling of an incident in which an inebriated male flier allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger suggests an urgent need for stricter rules to deal with unruly passengers, according to legal and aviation experts.
M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, zooming over 5 per cent, followed by PowerGrid, ITC, L&T, Tech Mahindra, Titan and Tata Steel. Nifty rallied 169.80 points to 18,161.75.
Ratan Tata, the octogenarian chairman of Tata Trusts that have controlling stake in Tata Sons, separately said he was extremely disappointed over reports speculating a major revamp in the leadership structure at the group. "I would like to state that no leadership structural changes are on the anvil," Chandrasekaran said in a brief statement. The statement came in relation to a Bloomberg report that said Tata Sons was considering a "historic revamp of its leadership structure by creating a chief executive officer's role to help improve corporate governance."
The 14 listed Tata group companies in which Tata Sons holds a stake are paying out a record Rs 35,441 crore to their shareholders by way of dividends and share buyback for FY21.
All nine Adani stocks saw a rise in their share price in H1FY23, ranging from 6.1% in case of Adani Ports to 102% in case of Adani Power.
Close to six months since the launch of Tata Neu, the super application (app) from Tata Sons Group is all set for a revamp. The highlights include a reimagined rewards programme or NeuPass, a more seamless user experience by increasing the digital maturity of brands, adding more brands to the platform, and hiring category leaders to drive the next phase of growth. When it comes to brands, Titan will join Tata Neu by Diwali. Tata Motors and Air India will be on board after the Festival of Lights.
Three evacuation flights from Romania's capital Bucharest and Hungary's capital Budapest came to India on Tuesday with 616 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive, officials said.
A Delhi court on Saturday sent Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on a woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody.
