IndiGo, known for operating at least 60% of domestic flights in India, is facing one of the worst crises in the history of global aviation. The disruption has so far resulted in mass cancellations, widespread delays, and the company paying refunds amounting to 827 crore rupees. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation, IndiGo’s parent, fell nearly 9% on November 8, with the company losing nearly 18,000 crore rupees worth of market valuation.

The whole crisis started as India’s new passenger safety norms came into effect. It has put strict emphasis on the duty timings of pilots and flight crew, making sure they get a mandatory weekly rest period of 36 to 48 hours, while capping the flying hours that continue into the night to 10 hours.

While IndiGo’s rivals Air India and SpiceJet have already hired more staff to comply with the new rules, IndiGo, which runs 2,200 flights daily, has fallen short of the crew, resulting in massive flight cancellations, causing an ordeal for thousands of flyers.

While the Narendra Modi-led Indian government has relaxed the new aviation safety rules, it is in no mood to let the airline go unpunished. Apart from show-causing Pieter Elbers, the South Asian country’s civil aviation ministry is also mulling drastic moves like slashing IndiGo’s winter schedule and reducing the number of flights by 5%.

Amid the chaos, while the company’s board members anonymously expressed their views on Pieter Elbers’ future at the company to the leading Indian business daily Business Standard, no conclusion has been reached yet.

A board member said that while removing Pieter Elbers was an option, finding a new CEO who can run an airline operating around 2,300 daily flights is not easy. Expressing confidence in Elbers’ capability, a second board member said he had handled multiple crises as an aviation industry veteran, and the ongoing chaos was “another major crisis” he must manage effectively.

The first member, however, said if the Narendra Modi government puts “intense pressure,” along with a “substantial financial penalty,” the company may have to think about a leadership change. The second member highlighted that disciplinary action could instead be directed at other senior executives responsible for managing the pilot duty roster and overseeing hiring.

IndiGo has nine members on its board, chaired by Vikram Singh Mehta, a former IAS officer and ex-head of Shell India. Promoter-director Rahul Bhatia is serving as managing director. The board also includes the likes of senior lawyer Pallavi Shardul Shroff and former Indian Air Force chief BS Dhanoa, with the duo serving as independent directors. Michael Gordon Whitaker, former head of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is also an independent director.

Meleveetil Damodaran, former Sebi chairman, sits on the board as a non-executive director, along with finance veteran Anil Parashar and former WestJet chief executive Gregg Albert Saretsky. Amitabh Kant, former Niti Aayog CEO, is also a non-executive director.

Photo Credits: IndiGo

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Previously, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a radio programme announced India being named the official host of the World Environment Day—a defining moment for the country and its leadership efforts in climate change. He also encouraged citizens to discard any form of plastic usage in future.

On the eve of World Environment Day, a storytelling session was held intending to reinforce environmental awareness. More than 150 people attended the event including those from the DMRC, NBT, JICA and Kodansha. Dr. Harsh Vardhan encouraged people to actively initiate Green Social Responsibility and take up Green Good Deeds everyday. Additionally, he said there are 700 Green Good Deeds available for people to help conserve the environment.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said: “India is excited to host the World Environment Day this year on June 5. Indian philosophy and lifestyle has long been rooted in the concept of coexistence with nature. We are committed to making Planet Earth a cleaner and greener place.”

“If each and every one of us does at least one green good deed daily towards our Green Social Responsibility, there will be billions of green good deeds daily on the planet.”

Modi will address the gathering at the event held today. In an effort to display his encouragement towards the initiative, he even posted a video greeting the Twitterati: “Greetings on #WorldEnvironmentDay. Together, let us ensure that our future generations live in a clean and green planet, in harmony with nature.”

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The two countries are working together to employ the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which the US President Donald Trump has turned down. Climate change is a matter of major concern between the two nations. On Sunday, the French President will attend a solar power summit that will showcase India and France’s commitment to tackle climate change. 

Along with the discussion, both leaders will focus on defence and nuclear energy sales. The sale of six nuclear reactors that was getting delayed for a long period of time will also be discussed to supposedly help strengthen the diplomatic ties between the two nations. The announcement on allowing Indian navy ships to use French bases in the southern Indian Ocean is on Macron’s cards.

Macron who is accompanied by his wife Brigitte will visit the Taj Mahal and the spiritual capital of India, Varanasi.

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Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi signed the ‘historic agreement’.

It is the first time that Indian companies have been allowed to hold stakes in UAE’s oil sector.

After a two-day four-nation Middle East visit, Modi will be flying back to India from Oman, with a number of agreements signed in his hands.

India and Oman now have eight agreements, in the fields of defence, health and tourism.

The UAE’s official news agency Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported this agreement has given ‘a consortium of Indian oil companies a 10 percent interest in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Lower Zakum concession’.

The WAM also mentioned that the Indian companies added a participation fee of almost $599 to enter concession.

The WAM has further reported that the agreement will be effective from March 9^th for a term of 40 years.

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At the meeting while having a bilateral trade and investments discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the US President referred to Modi as a ‘friend’ and highlighted their healthy relationship in the light of their prior political conducts.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is here. We had met at the White House before. He has become a friend of ours. He is doing a great job. A lot of things were solved and we will continue to work together,” he said.

The leaders of both the nations discussed security and also talked about boosting trade.

Highlighting the meeting of Trump and Modi, a White House read-out said, “The two leaders discussed the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and India and their shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. They pledged to enhance their cooperation as major defense partners, resolving that two of the world’s great democracies should also have the world’s greatest militaries.”

After the meeting, Modi said India and the US can go beyond bilateral relations. Elaborating, Modi said, “The relations between India and the US are growing, and I also feel that the relationship between India and the US is not only for mutual interest. It goes beyond that. We are working together for the interest, for the future of Asia and for the humanity as a whole in the world.”

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The initiative is not only economically helping the deprived weavers in India, but is also pronoting the khadi cottage industry get back its strong foothold.

While some luxury brands, jewelers and car companies whined about the drop in the sale during Diwali, which is the country’s major festival, the sale of khadi sky-rocketed. In his monthly address to the country on his radio programme, ‘Mann Ki Baat’, Modi said, “During Diwali, Khadi gift coupon sales recorded an overwhelming 680 per cent rise. Compared to last year, the total sales of Khadi & Handicrafts have risen almost by 90%. One can clearly see that today, the youth, the elderly, and women, in fact every age group is taking to Khadi & handloom.”

The official record of the Indian khadi products dates back to 1854. It played a major role in the Swadeshi (Make in your own country) Movement during the British rule. The sale of khadi goods, which stumbled in the past years, have been put back to track, with the promotion of the business.

“First khadi was ‘Khadi for nation,’ then we tried to make it ‘khadi for fashion,’ and now it has become ‘khadi for transformation.’ Handloom is changing the lives of poor people by empowering them. It is playing a major role in gram uday (village upliftment),” Modi said on his Sunday’s radio addressal.

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The move by Abe, who starts a two-day visit to India, highlights an early lead for Japan in a sector where the Chinese have also been trying to secure a foothold, but without much success.

Described as the Indian Railways’ most ambitious project till date, the 550-kilometre bullet train corridor may help rewrite India’s transport infrastructure narrative.

The leaders will launch the start of work on the line on Thursday, India’s railways ministry said in a statement.

Japan is providing 81 percent of the funding for the 1.08-trillion-rupee ($16.9-billion) project, through a 50-year loan at 0.1 percent annual interest.

Tokyo hopes that by gaining a head start on rival exporters of rail technology such as China and Germany, its companies will be able to dominate business in one of the most promising markets for high-speed rail equipment.

In 2015, China won a contract to assess the feasibility of a high-speed link between Delhi and Mumbai, part of a network of more than 10,000 km (6,214 miles) of track India wants to set up, but little progress has been made.

From the seas, to the skies

Currently 11 stations are proposed in this corridor. The terminal is planned at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai. The station is to be built three levels underground.

From BKC, the train will traverse 21 kilometres underground before emerging above ground at Thane. Out of these, seven kilometers will be undersea.

From Thane, it will move further north, finally ending its journey in Ahmedabad. The proposed 11 stations are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand and Ahmedabad. The terminal at Ahmedabad is planned near Sabarmati railway station.

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The trio had the meeting as a part of the 9th BRICS Summit, in which Putin appreciated the Indo-Russian friendship, “Relations between Russia and India have deep historical roots… I have to say that the results, including those of our joint work, are certainly positive… we are actively promoting military-technical cooperation.”

To continue their bilateral trade, Putin told Modi, “In the first six months of this year, we observe considerable growth – almost 22 percent, 21.9 percent. It goes without saying that we should preserve this positive trend.”

India has been trading with Russia for an extensive period of time. The deal has been with the Russian company, Rosneft, a chief oil company. But the $12.9 billion purchase deal with the Indian conglomerate, Essar was stroke off the previous month.

In the meeting, Putin talked with Zuma about “the downward trend in bilateral trade”. About their joint information security venture, Putin told Zuma, “We signed today an agreement on joint work on information security and we cooperate in a consolidated fashion in international organizations.”

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IFM Correspondent

November 9, 2016: Most of India is confused and in a state of panic after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on November 8 that 500 and 1000 rupee notes will no longer be accepted as legal tender. They will be replaced by new currency of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations.

The move is a bold initiative by the government to fight corruption, counterfeit currency and unaccounted money.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cited the abnormal rise in fake currencies of higher denominations and also high denominations facilitating black money circulation as the reasons for the move. India is cash based economy and this measure needed to be taken to control the rising incidence of fake notes and unaccounted money.

RBI governor Urjit Patel assured Indians that there has been no breach in security of the existing notes, but the fake notes in circulation look similar and could be difficult to identify by untrained eyes.

The announcement took India by surprise. However, the RBI had six months to prepare for this task. The information was kept highly confidential with only the finance minister and four senior officers aware of what was to come.

The implications of this announcement are huge. The people who will be affected the most are those who have hoarded money avoiding taxes and terrorists who are circulating fake currency. But even the general public will have to suffer on account of this move as they might not be able to meet their immediate needs.

Demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes will compel people into using legal channels and consequently increase the amount of taxes in the hands of the government.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, said demonetisation of high value notes won’t be a problem as the bank has done it before. “We have just now been advised of the government move to demonetise the current series of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. We have handled demonetisation earlier and will do so again,” she stated.

As a result of this ban, there has been a rise in the use of plastic money and a surge in demand for gold. Venkatesh Babu, owner of Venkateshwara Jewellery explains, “Many people now have more confidence in gold, which is driving up the demand of the precious commodity. People will start buying gold ornaments.”

The general consensus among businesses and bankers is that this measure will be beneficial to the economy in the long run, but might cause inconvenience to Indians in the next few days.

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