INDIAN ECONOMY: OVERVIEW, GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
‘Rich and powerful can’t run this court’, says supreme court on conspiracy against CJI
The Supreme Court, at hearing on conspiracy against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said that “the rich and powerful cannot run the court. The top court’s remarks came during a hearing on the affidavit by a lawyer claiming there was a conspiracy behind framing the Chief Justice in a sexual harassment case. “Don’t play with fire. We want to send a message to the people of the country, the rich and powerful that they cannot control or run this court,” a bench of the Supreme Court said. The bench said there is a systematic attack or game to run the court and “nobody knows the truth.”
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
As part of ‘study in India’ initiative, experts brainstorm ways to get best teachers, students
Eminent educationists and top policymakers, including Niti Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant, on Wednesday discussed ways to attract the best teaching talent and students from across the globe, as part of government’s “Study in India” initiative. “How to attract the best of teachers who are of Indian origin but now teaching abroad. An idea that was floated during the discussions by the group headed by Kant was that a special package could be created to attract the best of teachers. Another aspect was granting of more autonomy in areas like hiring foreign faculty in institutions that are engaged in government’s Study in India programme,” said an official who participated in the discussions. Around 70 top academicians took part in the three-day event organised by the HRD ministry. Former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K Kasturirangan, scientific advisor to the PM Vijaya Raghavan, National Testing Agency chairman MS Ananth and others were among those who participated in the discussions.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Launch of Buddha Air’s Kolkata-Kathmandu flight deferred due to Lok Sabha elections
The ongoing Lok Sabha elections has delayed the launch of Nepal’s private airlines Buddha Air’s proposed flight between Kolkata and Kathmandu by over a month. The airline will now begin its operation from May 27 instead of its earlier plan to start from April 16, Buddha Air’s Marketing Director Rupesh Joshi said. “We will operate three weekly flights between Kathmandu and Kolkata on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from May 27,” he said. “Both the India government and all agencies involved with aviation business suggested to begin the service post election. So we decided to defer it,” he said. Buddha Air would be the second Nepali Airline to connect Kolkata with Kathmandu after the Royal Nepal Airlines’ withdrawal from Kolkata two decades back, Joshi said. The Royal Nepal Airlines now operates flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Kathmandu, he said. Joshi said grounding of Jet Airways will affect tourism in Nepal and a large number of booking for hotels and tour operators have been cancelled.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Ashwani Lohani may meet SBI chief over leasing of 5 wide-body jet planes
Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani is likely to meet State Bank chairman Rajnish Kumar Friday over the national carrier’s plans to lease five wide-body Boeing planes from the now grounded Jet Airways. Weighed down by a mountain of debt and falling revenue, Jet Airways announced suspension of its entire operations from Wednesday night and owns 16 wide-body planes, 10 B777-300ERs and six Airbus A330s.
The SBI-led consortium of lenders are now running the airline under a debt recast plan. The Air India chairman had written to SBI chief Wednesday expressing interest in taking on lease five of the Boeing 777s from Jet and deploy them in key international routes. And the meeting, expected to take place in New Delhi, is in furthering this.
“Lohani is expected to meet Kumar to discuss his plans of leasing five Jet Airways’ B777s. Air India is keen to launch more international routes and enhance frequencies on the existing ones. “But it does not have additional aircraft to do so. If it is able to strike a deal with Jet lenders, it can expand the international operations further,” a source privy to the development told PTI. The Air India spokesperson was not available to confirm or deny the meeting.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Mukesh Ambani’s bet on India’s rising middle class is paying off
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s debt-fueled bet on the rise of the Indian consumer is starting to pay off, with his retail and telecommunications businesses contributing an increasing share of revenue and profit to his $87 billion empire.
The two divisions accounted for a combined 23 percent of revenue for the year ended March, up from 17 percent in the previous year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That growth has come at the expense of the conglomerate’s energy-related arms, which have been the bedrock of Ambani’s business for more than a decade. Their revenue share dropped to 77 percent from 83 percent, the data show.
Asia’s richest man has ambitions to take on Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. in India, where the power of the middle class is growing along with demand for e-commerce. Ambani launched the telecommunications business in 2016, spending $36 billion to roll out a 4G wireless network across India and luring millions of subscribers with free or cut-price data services. He’s now building on that business to create an online shopping platform, just as the U.S. giants come up against constraints on foreign e-commerce activity in India.
Ambani has set big expectations for Reliance’s consumer divisions, saying they will contribute almost as much to the conglomerate’s earnings as energy-related arms by the end of 2028.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
[ads1]
Air India waives cancellation charges for Colombo flight tickets post Sri Lanka blasts
Air India has waived all charges for rescheduling and cancellation of tickets to and from Colombo till April 24 in the wake of terror attacks in Sri Lanka that has killed more than 160 people.
Besides, the airline has requested passengers to report well in advance to clear security at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo.
“In view of the situation in #Srilanka #AirIndia has waived all charges for rescheduling/ cancellation of bookings on its flts (flights) to/ from Colombo for travel till April 24, 2019,” the carrier said in a tweet.
Air India operates two daily flights to Colombo from the national capital while Air India Express flies a daily Chennai-Colombo flight, according to an official.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Rupee rises 9 paise against US dollar in early trade
The rupee appreciated by 9 paise to 69.58 against the US dollar on Tuesday ahead of the RBI’s second round of dollar-rupee swap auction.
The currency was also buoyed on reports that India has lined up alternate sources to make up for likely shortfall in crude supplies, forex dealers said. Besides, a positive start of the equity markets influenced recovery of the rupee, they added.
However, a strong US dollar against major global currencies capped gains of the domestic unit.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to inject long-term liquidity worth USD 5 billion into the banking system through dollar-rupee buy-sell swap for a tenure of three years, the second such auction within a month.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Consumers may feel pinch of high oil prices post Lok Sabha polls
The US sanction against India’s oil import from Iran will not disrupt domestic fuel supply because Indian refiners have made alternative arrangements, but consumers may feel the pinch as oil marketing companies are under immense pressure to hike petrol and diesel rates post-elections, government and industry officials said.
“Crude oil imports have become costlier. The US sanction has added to the woes. Oil companies are unable to proportionately increase retail prices of petrol and diesel due to political constraints. Ultimately, the consumer will face the heat as oil companies cannot absorb it [higher crude oil rates] indefinitely,” an executive working for a state-run oil marketing company said on condition of anonymity.
Benchmark Brent crude prices on Tuesday surged to $74.70 per barrel, the highest since November 2018, mainly due to the US decision to withdraw waivers to all countries, including India, from importing Iranian crude oil from May 2.
Petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan said India will get additional supplies from other major oil producing countries to compensate for the loss of Iranian oil.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Boeing axes orders for 210 planes after Jet Airways stops flying
Boeing Co removed 210 aircraft from its order backlog and took an impairment charge over customer financing losses on Wednesday following the near-collapse of India’s Jet Airways.
The adjustment pushed the world’s largest planemaker behind European rival Airbus in the race for business this year as both companies grappled with cancellations that outweighed new orders in the first quarter.
Under recent changes in accounting rules, Boeing hives off orders that no longer meet its criteria for recognising revenue into a separate category, while defending contractual claims.
As a result, Boeing net orders for the first quarter slid into negative territory, with a total of minus 119 net orders after cancellations, despite a slew of new wide-body sales.