Aviation policy to go before Cabinet; 5/20 rule under lens:Srcs
The much delayed aviation policy may be put before the Cabinet on Wednesday to review the 5/20 rule. The clause, which restricts the domestic airlines to fly overseas only after five years of operation, may be removed. But the clause for provision of 20 aircraft before flying overseas is likely to stay. The policy may also help boost regional connectivity by providing sops to airline companies to fly through nonviable routes. Connor Cook Womens Jersey
Petrol price hiked by 83 paise , diesel up by Rs 1.26
Petrol price was today hiked by 83 paisa a litre and diesel by Rs 1.26 per litre, the second increase in rates this month. Petrol in DELHI will cost Rs 63.02 per litre from today, while a litre of diesel will cost Rs 51.67, said Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer. Rates were last hiked by Rs 1.06 a litre on petrol and Rs 2.94 a litre on diesel on May 1. “The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and the rupee-US Dollar exchange rate warrant increase in price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision,” the IOC said. State-owned fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd ( BPCL ) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd( HPCL ) revise rates of the fuel on 1st and 16th of every month based on the average oil price and the foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight. “The movement of prices in the international oil market and the rupee-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes,” the company added. Dustin Colquitt Authentic Jersey
Indian consumers most confident in world in Q1 2016: Nielsen
Indian consumers were the most confident in the world in terms of job prospects, personal finances and concerns in the first quarter of 2016 with their confidence index touching a nine-year high during the period, according to a study by global performance management company, Nielsen. The Consumer Confidence Index score for India increased three index points in the first quarter to a score of 134, the highest for the country since 2007 and comes after three consecutive quarters at 131, Nielsen said in a statement. However, despite the improvement in overall consumer sentiment, more than half of urban India (53 per cent) still feel that the country is in an economic recession at the moment, Nielsen said adding “this is 3 per cent more than what it was in the previous quarter”. As per the study, India was followed by the Philippines with a score of 119 and Indonesia with 117 points although it was a mixed bag among the world’s largest economies. While the score jumped 10 points to 110 in the US, China (105), Germany and UK (97) and Japan (73) showed quarter-on-quarter decline. “Overall, global consumer confidence remained stable in the first quarter and below the optimism baseline score of 100, edging up one index point to 98. The score reflected mixed confidence levels in every region,” Nielsen said. All three confidence indicators — job prospects, personal finances and concerns — increased from the previous quarter in India with job sentiment, personal finances and immediate spending intentions at consistently high levels. In the latest online survey, fielded March 1 23, 2016, 83 per cent of urban Indian respondents indicated the highest level of optimism globally on job prospects up by three index points since fourth quarter of 2015. Similarly, there was optimism abound when it came to the state of personal finances with 85 per cent respondents stating the situation to be good or excellent (82 per cent in October-December of 2015), the study said. Nielsen India Region Managing Director Roosevelt D’Souza said in the days following the Budget announcements about the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation, sustained and inclusive growth, an improvement in various macroeconomic indicators was evident. “The government seems to be on its way to achieving its objectives of low inflation, low interest rates and high GDP growth a scenario optimal for improved consumer spending,” he added. The Nielsen Global Survey polled more than 30,000 online consumers in 63 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East/Africa and North America. Bernie Kosar Authentic Jersey
Mumbai-bound SpiceJet SG 154 forgets over 40 flyers
The series of misadventures involving SpiceJet flight SG 154 from Kochi to Mumbai began after it was delayed by 75 minutes. “The airline attributed the delay to air traffic congestion at Mumbai.We were to land in Mumbai at 8.55pm; instead the departure was moved to 8.10pm,” said Karthik Ramani, who travelled on that flight. When the passengers were being ferried from the terminal building to the aircraft by coaches, around 7.50pm, there was a sudden, heavy , downpour. “I was in the last bus that was carrying about 40-50 passengers to the aircraft. It stopped at a spot on the apron and remained there for close to 30 minutes,” said Ramani. The passengers could see two SpiceJet aircraft parked ahead of them, a Boeing 737 and a smaller Q400 aircraft that was bound for Chennai.As the exasperated passengers waited for their bus to move, their aircraft started moving instead. “We saw the bigger aircraft moving and were worried that this was our flight, since ours was the Mumbai flight and so it would be operated by the bigger aircraft. But since it’s not possible that they would leave passengers behind, we weren’t sure,” ” he said. The bus went up to the smaller aircraft and the driver opened the doors. The flyers disembarked and showed their boarding passes to the ground crew at the ladder point but were told that that particular aircraft was going to Chennai, Ramani recalled. By this time, the Boeing 737 bound for Mumbai had begun taxiing and the bewildered and angry passengers started shouting. The panic-stricken SpiceJet ground staff started making calls even as the Boeing 737 continued to taxi to wards the runway . “Finally , it came to a halt. It stayed there for about 20 minutes before it taxied back,” said Ramani. The passengers then boarded. “The commander was very angry about the goof-up, he was shouting at the crew. He said he wouldn’t operate the flight, and the crew had to pacify him,” he added. “It’s strange that they didn’t realise that one-fourth of the aircraft was empty , though the flight was fully booked,” he said. The aircraft finally departed at 10pm. SpiceJet did not respond to the questions sent by TOI. P Mohanan, a former ICAO security auditor, said: “In 1985, Air India’s Kanishka bombing took place only because the terrorists had checked-in their bags, but they didn’t board. Since then passenger-baggage reconciliation has been made mandatory . Even if one passenger has not boarded and hisher bag has been checked in, it has to be removed before the plane can depart. This is a major security breach and an inquiry should be conducted.” Sam Mills Jersey
13 cities with aerodromes told to go online for building plans
To enable easy take-off of construction projects in the proximity of airports, Union Urban Development Ministry has directed 13 cities with aerodromes to go online with regard to approvals for building plans by March next year. These 13 cities are among the 15 cities for which the Airports Authority of India has already evolved Colour Coded Zoning Maps for according ‘No Objection Certificates’ in respect of height of construction projects. The other two cities, namely Delhi and Mumbai, have already enabled online approvals based on a Common Application Form. Urban Development Ministry Additional Secretary Durga Shankar Misra today reviewed the status of these 13 cities in this regard with Municipal Commissioners of most of these cities and urged them to facilitate integrated online approvals during this financial year, an official release said. Cities that were encouraged to go online included Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Nagpur, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Patna, Aurangabad, Chennai, Kochi, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. Tyler Johnson Authentic Jersey
Railways to form joint venture with Karnataka govt: Suresh Prabhu
The Railways will form a joint venture company with the Karnataka government in three months, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has said. Stating that this will help develop rail infrastructure projects in the State, the Railways needs small and medium enterprises to supply components to it. He was addressing the valedictory of the platinum jubilee celebrations of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) here on Monday. Infra focus Highlighting the role of infrastructure development in the growth story, Prabhu said the Railways has been investing heavily in infrastructure projects such as track development, hi-speed rail line, and dedicated freight corridor. Two of the major international companies have been given the task of making electric and diesel locomotives for the Railways. Stressing on the need to explore the potential of the west coast of the country, he said organisations such as KCCI should come forward and work with the Railways to explore this potential. Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament from Dakshina Kannada, Ramanath Rai, Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada district, and JR Lobo, Member of Legislative Assembly (Mangaluru South), spoke on the occasion. PTI adds: Speaking after renaming Bengaluru city railway station as Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna Station in Bengaluru on Sunday, Prabhu said the idea is for the State government to collaborate with the Railways to create fast and accelerated infrastructure for the State. “Within the next three months, we will operationalise this (joint venture) company. The Chief Minister has invited me for a meeting on this. We will take the next step forward to ensure that the company is operationalised and take up infrastructure projects,” he added. In February, the Union government had cleared a proposal allowing the Railways to form JV companies with State governments with equity participation to help identify areas that require new railway lines, acquire land for projects and help pool funds as well as jointly monitor these projects. Station renamed The Bengaluru station was named after Karnataka’s prominent freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna (1798-1831), the head of the army in the princely State of Kittur ruled by Rani Chennamma. Prabhu also laid the foundation stone for Yelahanka-Penukonda (120 km), Arsikere-Tumakuru (96 km), Hubballi-Chikjajur (190 km) doubling projects, and road overbridge at Koppal. The road overbridge at Davangere was also commissioned today during the event that was attended by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar, among others. Track doubling Prabhu promised that doubling of Mysuru-Bengaluru line will be completed in six months and Bengaluru-Hassan new line project of 165 km will be done before the end of 2016. The Ministry is exploring the possibility of having ‘semi high speed’ railway between Bengaluru-Mysuru and Hubballi-Bengaluru. Detroit Lions Jersey
Amazon India’s growth threatens to unsettle ecommerce firms like Flipkart and Snapdeal
Amazon India has gained significant growth momentum this year that threatens to unsettle domestic giants Flipkart and Snapdeal, with the online retailer’s shipments having increased 150% in the first calendar quarter from a year earlier. Amazon India Managing Director Amit Agarwal said in an interview to ET that the company continued to grow at an “extremely fast” pace compared with the rest of the industry and that he expects the aggressive growth momentum to continue through the year. “We were growing at 3-4 times the rate (the overall) landscape was growing. So we exited 2015 with a very high bar for growth in 2016,” said Agarwal, who was recently inducted into Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos’ global leadership team. “What we saw in the first quarter of 2016 was that momentum has not slowed.” Amazon India is locked in a battle for market leadership with Flipkart and Snapdeal, and all three have aggressively spent billions of dollars on marketing, strengthening their supply chains and acquiring customers with predatory discounts. But while Flipkart and Snapdeal are struggling to raise money and grappling with spending cuts, Amazon’s US parent has pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars into its India operations. ET reported on April 28 that Amazon India was the only major online marketplace to register an increase in unit market share in March, dislodging Snapdeal at second position. Amazon has injected at least Rs 6,700 crore since January 2015 into its India unit, Amazon Seller Services more than half of that since December. Agarwal reeled off more chestthumping numbers: Amazon India’s shipments in 2015 increased by 250% over the prior year; the number of active sellers on the platform more than tripled to 85,000; the number of sellers registering more than Rs 1crore in annual sales more than doubled; and Amazon India added 90,000 new products daily between January and March. Amazon India, like other ecommerce companies, however, is grappling with recent regulations that could require making significant changes to its business model. While the government allowed 100% foreign direct investment in online marketplaces, it banned predatory pricing through heavy discounting and put restrictions on any single vendor accounting for more than 25% of overall sales. Agarwal, presenting an optimistic front, said the government’s new policy gave Amazon India sufficient clarity for it to invest more on seller-related initiatives such as Amazon Tatkal, which enables small businesses to onboard its online platform in under an hour. ET reported last week that Amazon India’s executives had emphasised on government officials recently that online marketplaces should be allowed to do their own promotions for the domestic online retail sector to grow. They had also sought clarity on whether an ecommerce firm could advertise discounts offered by sellers. Industry experts caution that the new regulations may force a brief pause on Amazon India’s efforts to snatch market share from Flipkart, still the country’s largest online marketplace by a margin. But several also said that Amazon’s execution in terms of building its supply chain and its global experience would give it an edge over its domestic rivals. “Amazon’s systems and technologies which they built, learned (from), matured with and experimented with over the past 20 years are far more powerful than that of other players,” said Rutvik Doshi, director at venture capital firm Inventus Capital. “Their on-ground execution in terms of building a deep and wide catalogue compared with other players, combined with their technology, makes it much easier to discover products.” Agarwal said Amazon India is the market leader in key metrics such as customer satisfaction and product range. Amazon India has 55 million products listed on its platform while Flipkart has more than 40 million. “We (India operations) continue to be Amazon’s fastest-growing geography. Pretty much in all the inputs that we track… we know we are the leader,” said Agarwal, emphasising that Amazon India measures volume growth in terms of “actual units shipped, after returns and cancellation”. As for merchants, Agarwal said the overall number of sellers on Amazon India was more than 4 lakh (as compared with 3 lakh for Snapdeal and 1 lakh for Paytm). But “we don’t fool ourselves with sellers engaged with the platform… what we track is the total number of sellers who are active, which has grown by 250% yearover-year to more than 85,000”, said Agarwal. “That number is more important than just signing up sellers.” Dean Lowry Jersey
Flipkart to promote brands prominently during searches by customers on its website and mobile app
Flipkart is looking to tap big brands such as Samsung and Microsoft to rev up its fledgling advertisement business, a unit that’s expected to drive profitability for India’s largest online retailer. It will offer to promote these brands prominently during searches by customers on its website and mobile app, besides helping them to target customers better through data analytics and tracking consumer behaviour. Brands that sign up will account for as much as 70% of the advertisement unit’s business, with the remaining expected from product listing solutions (PLA) used by thousands of merchants on the platform, according to a top executive. The etailer’s advertisement business, which hit a revenue run rate of Rs 80 crore or $12 million annually in February, is targeting two to three times growth every year, according to one person familiar with development. Flipkart is also on the lookout for acquisitions for the unit. The move to aggressively go after brands Flipkart has already signed up 100 is in line with the strategy to open up brand stores and focus on the delivery experience of its biggest sellers, as reported by ET earlier. After Samsung Electronics launched the Galaxy J7 and Galaxy J5 devices exclusively on Flipkart earlier this month, the online retailer has been monetising the relationship with the South Korean multi-national by selling ads and launching a brand store on the etailer’s mobile application. “Given our current strategy, I see a fair bit of traction and revenues coming from brand ads, while PLA is very strategic to our advertisement business and we continue to stay invested,” said Ravi Garikipati, senior vice-president leading the advertisement business. He confirmed the growth target for the unit. The unit’s other clients include Micromax, Intel, Intex, Qualcomm, IFB, Maharaja Whiteline and Geetanjali Jewels. Flipkart started its advertisement unit last year, first with product listings to help sellers promote their products when customers search for them in the marketplace. About 20,000 of its 85,000 merchants have used it till now, with 10,000 active campaigns running a month. Late last year, it also launched a ‘brand story ad format’ allowing companies to target specific customers browsing for products related to their own on the online marketplace. Along with this, it launched Flipkart Shopper Audience to help advertisers target audiences outside the Flipkart mobile application. Flipkart’s attempt at building an advertisement business is similar to Alibaba. According to research firm eMarketer, the Chinese online commerce giant’s mobile advertisement revenue will jump to $7.35 billion in 2016 from $4.75 billion in 2015. “Alibaba has a very similar approach to advertisements and it is 66% of their revenue. Over time, it will also become significant for us,” added Garikipati, although he declined to disclose specific numbers or targets for the Flipkart unit. Along with its logistics unit Ekart, Flipkart is counting on the advertisement business to generate cash flows. Scaling the business to a significant size will take some time, said people in the know. “Their advertisement business is looking to grow two to three times year-on-year, but until it reaches $200-300 million it will not be able to add cash flows to fight Amazon,” the person said. To ramp up growth faster, the advertisement business is also eyeing acquisitions. In 2015, Flipkart bought mobile ad network AdIQuity to kick-start the business. William Gholston Authentic Jersey
Alliance Air to operate flights from Hyderabad to Jabalpur, Bhopal
Alliance Air, the wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, will commence operations to Jabalpur and Bhopal from Hyderabad with effect from May 24, on every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The flights will be operated with 70-seater ATR 72-600 aircraft. The flight AI 9864 will leave Hyderabad at 12.50 p.m. and arrive in Jabalpur at 2.50 p.m. and will depart from Jabalpur at 3.20 p.m. and arrive Bhopal at 4.25 p.m. The flight AI 9863 will leave Bhopal at 08.45 a.m. and arrive in Jabalpur at 09.50 a.m. and will leave for Hyderabad at 10.20 a.m. and to reach at 12.20 p.m. Willie Stargell Womens Jersey
FMCG volumes rises but on rural areas it remains mute
Consumer demand for groceries and daily household necessities have finally shown a spurt after remaining muted over the last three years . This year during the January -March quarter volume growth touched 4% date from IMRB Kantar world Panel show. Jurickson Profar Womens Jersey