Smile on face will be a good thing: AI chief tells staff
With rising instances of Air India facing flak for indiscipline and indifference, the airline’s chief Ashwani Lohani has asked the staff to be “courteous and polite” to passengers and said wearing a smile would be a “good thing”. In case there are delays in flights, both cockpit and cabin crew should keep passengers in the loop by providing them information about the reasons for the delay at “timely intervals”, Lohani said. The Air India Chairman and Managing Director said the check-in agents should be periodically counselled to interact with passengers politely. “Their attitude should be positive with a problem solving approach. In fact, all the staff of Air India or its ground handling agencies should be regularly counselled to be courteous and polite,” he said. In a lengthy message, Lohani has sought to sensitise the employees to ensure that passengers have a “good experience” with Air India, especially at a time when the carrier is looking to bring about a turnaround in its fortunes. This comes against the backdrop of multiple incidents in recent times, ranging from controversies involving people with disabilities to bad quality of food , to quarrels among staff, resulting in flight delays. “The cabin crew should greet the passengers while emplaning and deplaning with a ‘namaskaar’ as was the tradition. A smile on the face and conversing sweetly and politely without an iota of irritation would be a good thing,” Lohani said. During Aircraft on Ground (AOG) or progressive delay exceeding 30 minutes, Lohani said, the airport manager and the station manager should immediately reach the site and attend to the passengers. “There should be adequate communication to the passengers and their boarding/lodging needs should be taken care of without delay,” he said, adding that station manager and airport manager have to be proactive and positive with a problem solving approach. Further, he said the “quality of food has to be good” and that special checks need to be done on supplies by chef air. According to him, the captain of a flight should often connect with passengers during the journey and, at the end of first address, using the words ‘Jai Hind’ would make a tremendous impact. Anders Lee Womens Jersey
Low cost airline Air Pegasus to scale up operation
Low cost airline Air Pegasus, part of Decor Group of companies, is planning to scale up its operation in South India by operating more flights to more cities The company launched its daily flight between Bengaluru and Kochi on Wednesday. Kochi is the second city in Kerala and seventh in South India for Air Pegasus in its second year of operation. Air Pegasus managing director Shyson Thomas said the company plans to connect Goa and Bengaluru in June. Further, Tuticorin, Belgaum, Rajahmundry, Goa and Pondicherry are on its radar. Currently it operates in Thiruvananthapuram , Bengaluru, Madurai, Chennai , Mangalore and Hubli Air Pegasus is banking on the demand for IT professionals and the rise in industrial and food processing activity in Kochi to boost traffic . “ A second flight will be operational soon,” said Thomas, adding that Cochin International Airport Ltd. has agreed to exempt Air Pegasus from parking charges at the airport. Adam Oates Jersey
Gujarat Gas FY16 net profit down 65% at Rs 1.53 billion
Piped gas distributor, Gujarat Gas Ltd, reported a standalone net profit of Rs 1.53 billion for the financial year ended March 31, 2016, against Rs 4.44 billion in the previous year, showing a decline of over 65 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The total standalone income from operations stood at Rs 61.06 billion for the year as against Rs 90.06 billion in the previous year. The board of directors recommended a dividend of Rs 2.5 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 per share for the year ended March 2016. For the fourth quarter, company posted standalone net profit of Rs 580 million as against Rs 200 million in the corresponding quarter a year ago, up 190 per cent. Income from operations for the quarter was lower at Rs 13.78 billion against Rs 14.85 billion in the same period last year. Tyler Bertuzzi Jersey
India eyes oil-for-drugs deal with Venezuela to recoup pharma cash
Indian officials say they have proposed an oil-for-drugs barter plan with cash-strapped Venezuela to recoup millions of dollars in payments owed to some of India’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Several of India’s generics producers, led by the country’s second-largest player Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd , bet heavily on Venezuela as they sought emerging market alternatives to slower-growing economies such as the United States. But the unravelling of Venezuela’s socialist economy amid a fall in oil prices has triggered triple-digit inflation and a full-blown political and financial crisis. Unable to pay its bills, the country is facing severe shortages of even basic supplies such as food, water and medicines. Dr Reddy’s wrote off $65 million in the March quarter, which it said was almost all the money it was owed from Venezuela. Rival Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc, another major investor, says it is due $45 million. The situation in Venezuela is very precarious … the government knows it needs to do something about the medicine shortage, that’s why it is willing to discuss such a deal,” one Indian official told Reuters. “At this point, even if our companies get back 5 or 10 percent of the payment they are owed, they would be satisfied.” Venezuela’s Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Like pharmaceutical companies globally – which used to enjoy a preferential exchange rate in Venezuela – Indian producers have been left badly stung by the collapse of the bolivar currency. PAYMENT PLAN The Indian officials, who could not be named as they are not allowed to speak to the media, said the trade ministry had proposed a payment mechanism that would allow Venezuela to repay some of the amount owed with oil. The proposal, seen by Reuters, would use the State Bank of India to mediate the transfer. The plan is now awaiting approval on the Indian side from the finance ministry and the central bank, which regulates such payments. India, one of the world’s biggest oil importers along with the United States and China, had similarly elaborate barter deals with Iran , swapping rice and wheat for oil. The officials said Venezuela had been receptive to the plan “in principle”, but not made any concrete commitments yet. Indian officials said a “high level” meeting with Venezuela was due in the coming months to discuss the proposed deal. “The finance ministry has assured us that the government is fully committed to it, but it will take time,” said P.V. Appaji, Director General of the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India, a body under the country’s commerce ministry. India’s exports to Venezuela between April 2015 and February 2016 almost halved year-on-year to $125.5 million, compared with a year earlier. Most of that was pharmaceutical products. Tyler Ervin Womens Jersey
Sri Lanka to cancel Indian coal plant deal; proposes LNG instead
Sri Lanka will cancel plans for a 500 megawatt Indian-built coal-fired power plant at its strategic eastern port city of Trincomalee and will instead opt for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant, a cabinet minister said. Chandima Weerakkody, Sri Lanka’s petroleum minister, said President Maithripala Sirisena told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the decision at a meeting on Saturday during Sirisena’s visit to the island nation’s larger neighbour. “We do not want to hurt India. So President Sirisena in his visit has offered an LNG plant instead of the coal plant,” Weerakkody told Reuters. “This has been discussed at the highest level and there is consensus.” Sri Lanka is trying to increase its power generation capacity after a recent blackout that was the worst in 20 years, government officials say. B.M.S. Batagoda, the energy ministry secretary said the switch to LNG was proposed after ten years of opposition to a coal-fired power plant by the residents of Sampur, a village near Trincomalee, where India has already proposed to build South Asia’s largest petroleum hub. Area residents and environmental groups have resisted the coal power plant ever since it was originally proposed in 2006 due to worries about land clearance and pollution. Plans for the $500 million coal power plant project were finalised in 2011, when state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and India’s state-run National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) agreed to form a joint venture for its construction. It is not clear which Indian companies would be considered as partners on the proposal to build a gas-fired power plant. Natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel than coal, but there would be the added hurdle that Sri Lanka has no LNG import infrastructure. Sri Lanka’s only coal-fired power plant with 900 MW capacity was built with a $1.4 billion loan from China in two phases. However, the Chinese plant has faced frequent repairs. India and China have been increasingly loaning funds to Sri Lanka over the last few years, mainly for infrastructure projects. Since the island’s civil war ended in 2009, the two rivals have been competing for influence in Sri Lanka, which sits right off one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. Alex Pietrangelo Jersey