Government to soon announce measures to curb high airfares: Minister
After months of deliberations, the government is finally going to announce a mechanism soon to curb high airfares and unveil a new civil aviation policy to address all major issues affecting the sector. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said the civil aviation policy will lay out a roadmap to make India a leading player in the sector which is growing at over 20 per cent currently. The policy will be placed before the cabinet within two weeks. He said government’s priority is to improve infrastructure and it is investing around Rs 15,000 crore in 2016-17 in upgrading of the existing airports and setting up new ones. On fixing airfares, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very keen to have an upper cap on the ticket price and government would announce the measures while taking views of the airlines and that it would be by consensus and not through any regulation. “We are in the process of adopting certain measures to cap ticket price. But we are trying to do it by consensus and not by regulation. Our Prime Minister also envisions that fares be kept in control,” Sharma told PTI in an interview. Airfares usually go up by around 40-50 per cent during the festive seasons and vacations. The airlines had faced severe criticism when the fares had even touched as high as Rs 50,000 for a one way ticket between Bengaluru and Delhi during the Chennai floods in December last year. The fares had gone up significantly during the recent Jat agitation as well. Aviation regulator DGCA had last week said that discussions need to be held with airlines before any decision on fixing upper cap on ticket prices. “If a capping of airfares is required, then we will have to have discussions with them (airlines),” Directorate General of Civil Aviation Chief M Sathiyavathy said. On the civil aviation policy, which is hanging fire since for a long time, the Minister said majority of the issues were sorted out. India is currently ranked ninth in the global aviation market and it is aspiring to become third largest by 2025, Sharma said. The Minister said the basic thrust of the aviation policy will be to expand growth of the sector. “We wanted to make it a fool proof policy that is why we went through repeated meetings.” He said the policy will address all the pending issues including the 5/20 norm, regional connectivity scheme and the ground handling issues. Under 5/20 norm, a domestic airline cannot fly overseas unless it has completed five years of operation on local routes and has a fleet of 20 aircraft. Garrett Grayson Jersey
Centre to distribute 5 crore LPG connections in country: Narendra Singh Tomar
The Centre will distribute five crore LPG connections nationwide with a view to conserve the environment and protect women from pollution, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said today. “To conserve the environment and to protect women from pollution (caused by traditional cooking stoves and open hearths), the Modi government will distribute five crore LPG connections across the country. It will be given in the name of the women members of the family,” the Union Minister of Steel and Mines said. Under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’, the Centre has recently launched an ambitious Rs 8,000 crore scheme for providing five crore free LPG connections to BPL families using the money saved from 1.13 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies. He was addressing a rally at Seevanpat village in Ghodadongri Assembly constituency, where a bypoll is scheduled to be held on May 30. The by-election was necessitated due to the death of BJP MLA Sajjan Singh Uikey. BJP has fielded Mangal Singh Dhurve in the tribal dominated Ghodadongri (ST) constituency, while Congress has given ticket to former minister Pratap Singh Uikey. Derek Rivers Womens Jersey
GAIL reconfigures Rs 120 billion Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline
Country’s biggest natural gas transporter GAIL India Ltd has reconfigured the Rs 120 billion Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline, which will connect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political constituency Varanasi to the gas grid, to link the Dhamra terminal. The over 2,500-kilometer line will be constructed in three phases and will also now connect Adani Group’s Dhamra LNG import terminal in Odisha, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi said here. In the first phase, a trunk pipeline from Phulpur (Allahabad) will be laid to Dobhi (Gaya) in Bihar with spur lines to Barauni and Patna. “The 755-km Phase-1 project will cost Rs 32 billion and will be completed by December 2018,” he said. This section will take natural gas to Varanasi for not just feeding local industries but also for retailing CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas for households. GAIL already as a line up to Phulpur. It is raising capacity of this pipeline by laying a 672-km parallel line from Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh to Phulpur via Auriaya in Uttar Pradesh at the cost of Rs 43 billion. In the Phase-II, a 1200-km line would be laid from Dobhi to Bokaro/Ranchi in Jharkhand and Angul and Dharma in Odisha at the cost of Rs 55.65 billion, he said, adding that Phase-III will involve laying 583-km line to Haldia at the cost of Rs 34.25 billion. “While we can confirm that Phase-1 will be completed by December 2018, Phase-II and III completion will depend on the fertiliser plants coming up in the region as well as the timing of the Dharma LNG terminal,” he said. The phase-1 project will supply gas to major industries such as the Barauni Refinery and the Barauni fertilizer plant, which is being revived, besides power and steel plants. It will also help in setting up of City Gas Networks in major cities enroute. Previously, Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline was to span over 2,050-km but the length has now been increased with addition of Dharma port connectivity. GAIL originally proposed to lay the pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal nearly a decade back. But the project was put on the back burner due to non availability of gas and customers. The project was revived after BJP government came to power in May 2014 and it was felt that Modi’s constituency, Varanasi should be connected to the gas grid at the earliest. Also, the pipeline was needed for revival the fertiliser units in Barauni in Bihar and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. Tripathi said GAIL is also investing Rs 20 billion in replacing old pipelines in Cauvery and Krishna Godavari area of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as well as in Gujarat. “We are laying 700-km of new pipeline to replaced 35-40 years old pipelines,” he said Ondrej Pavelec Authentic Jersey
Students will regret their decision to join you, IIM-A says in the letter that sparked Flipkart row
In a new twist to the Flipkart-IIM-A controversy, the Ahmedabad institute has claimed that students from other campuses were also affected by the online retailer’s move to defer joining dates for recruits. While IIM-A claimed that it expected a conference call with Flipkart to resolve the matter, Flipkart has reportedly denied any such move, adding that it was not going to increase compensation for students as pushed by the institute. Here is the full text of the email that IIM-A had sent to Flipkart, which kicked off the row: From: IIM A chairperson To: Binny Bansal and Nitin Seth CC: Flipkart directors, placement head and placecom representatives of all colleges Subject: 7 months delay in joining of management trainees at Flipkart Dear Binny and Nitin, It really saddened me to read an email (please see below) sent by Flipkart campus team on Friday night. You had earlier promised to give joining in July to our students but now it has been delayed till December 2016. Let me assure you that not only students of IIM-A but all the other students from the different campuses are in shock to see such a mail from a well established name like Flipkart. This sudden decision will bring below changes: 1. A strong brand attracts the best of talent on any campus, anywhere in the world. Most of the students had chosen Flipkart over other well reputed recruiters on campus because of the strength of the brand Flipkart. Your decision to defer the date of joining, comes as it does so close to the earlier promised date of July 2016, is sure to make this talent pool regret their well thought out decision. Talented students fresh out of campus, on the eve of starting successful careers, feel cheated out of multiple opportunities that the campus had to offer, through no fault of their own, just because they chose Flipkart. With campus perception of recruiters trickling down from one batch to the next, this can significantly hurt the brand Flipkart on campus during subsequent rounds of campus hiring in the years to come. 2. With the need to service heavy educational loans that most of the students have taken, it stands to reason that the Flipkart’s decision of deferring joining by seven months puts a lot of personal finances (and by extension careers) in jeopardy and is bound to cause a lot of duress for the students and their families. The amount of 1.5 lakhs offered as joining bonus hardly qualifies as compensation for seven months of forced unemployment. 3. Future engagement of Flipkart with b-school campuses is bound to get affected as a relationship based on mistrust and lack of transparency can never be mutually beneficial. While we understand that restructuring calls for tough decisions in an organisation, the matter of campus hiring could have been handled much better with campuses forewarned well in advance and engaged as partners in this decision making. Rude shocks due to unilateral decision making does little to help strengthen relationships with the campus. All of these points only summarise that this decision is going to impact Flipkart, b-schools and most importantly talented students and their families in a very negative manner. Hence all placement heads and placement committees of all colleges have decided to come forward in support of our students and would like to have a common conference call with you so that we can find a more amicable solution. We request you to consider the following options: 1. An undertaking signed by the CEO guaranteeing that every one of these students will be absorbed when the date of joining is finalised no later than December 2. Either the period of deferment needs to be scaled down or the quantum of compensation for deferment needs to be ramped up (Rs 1.5 lakh for a period of seven months is, to put it mildly, utterly unacceptable) to reflect x% of package. 3. The payment of the compensation shall commence on a monthly basis starting July and not as a lump sum amount as joining bonus or arrears. As previously mentioned, we would appreciate a speedy response from your side regarding scheduling a conference call in the next couple of days, where all the relevant stakeholders (Flipkart management, placement chairpersons of the campuses, Placecom representatives from the campuses, representatives from Flipkart new joinees) can engage to reach a mutually acceptable solution. We hope that working together, we can keep the matter from escalating to a wider audience. Our only objective is to protect the careers of our students. Alex Cappa Womens Jersey
It’s the season of handshakes at startup Inc with Flipkart & Snapdeal seeking to make strategic purchases
For startups with deep ambitions to become fodder for bigger fish, this financial year could be the one granting them closure. In the fiscal year ended March 31, the number of mergers and acquisitions involving technology startups more than doubled to 146 transactions from 69 in 2014-15, according to data tracker Venture Intelligence. Experts are forecasting that startup acquisition activity in 2016-17 will surpass last year’s numbers, propelled, in part, by large and better-funded companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal that are actively seeking to make strategic purchases. “We definitely expect to see more consolidation this year driven by a few factors acquisitions that are complementary and synergistic; consolidation to take out competition; consolidation of cap tables; and acqui-hires,” said Aashish Bhinde, head of digital and technology at investment bank Avendus Capital. Investors and experts tracking India’s rapidly growing startup industry have been predicting a wave of mergers and acquisitions for several months now. Their primary reasons: The funding winter that has dawned on maturing companies; hyper-competition fueled by investor money; and the hasty floundering of some hugely hyped sectors because of weak business fundamentals. On-demand delivery startups emerged an investor favourite in the first half of 2015 before imploding in the latter part of the year and either shuttering or becoming takeover targets. Le’Veon Bell Jersey
US probes e-commerce giant Alibaba over accounting practices
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba says it is under investigation by US regulators in connection with its accounting practices. The company is the world’s biggest e-commerce platform, with more than 420 million people buying $485 billion worth of goods last year on its sites. Its digital platforms, including Taobao and Tmall, make up 80% of Chinese e-commerce. Alibaba said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has requested documents and information related to its policies and practices for consolidating earnings and for related party transactions, among other things. The company said it is cooperating with the investigation. Alibaba said it was told by the SEC that the request for information shouldn’t be interpreted as an indication by the agency that the company has violated securities laws. Alibaba Group Holding went public in the US in September 2014. Investors, seeking to tap into the rapidly growing Chinese middle-class, scrambled to buy shares. The offering raised $25 billion, making it the largest in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms cater to both Chinese and global consumers. At its heart is Taobao, a Chinese consumer-to-consumer website similar to eBay. Tmall offers merchants official storefronts to consumers in China. As sales growth has slowed in China with a weakening economy, Alibaba has reached abroad to spur sales, both from US companies selling goods on its platforms in China and Chinese sellers catering to international customers. US investors, worried about the state of the Chinese economy, have been wary of any possible signs of weakness in Alibaba’s performance. The company in January reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter, as mobile shopping continued to grow and Chinese customers snapped up goods during the holidays. Alibaba said the SEC’s request also included information on accounting for its Cainiao Network and its reporting of operating data from Singles Day, the popular Chinese shopping holiday on Nov. 11. Uchenna Nwosu Jersey
IITs may strip Flipkart of its ‘Day One’ status in campus placements for delaying joining dates
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are likely to strip Flipkart of its Day One status in their campus placement programs. This is a fallout of the ecommerce giant’s recent decision to defer the joining date for its most recent batch of campus recruits from June this year to December. According to multiple sources across IITs, Flipkart is almost certain to be bumped down from the prestigious Day One slot at the top institutes. The All-IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), comprising placement cell heads across all IITs, will be meeting in the next few days to take a stand on the Flipkart issue. Also read: IIM-A asks Flipkart to guarantee jobs of recruits, says Rs 1.5 lakh compensation for late joining unaccepatable “Flipkart’s Day One slot at IITs will be affected for sure,” said an AIPC member. “Our next AIPC meeting was scheduled for October, but we are planning to have a video conference in the next few days to decide on how to sort out the problem.” The Day One slot across IITs is normally reserved for the most reputed companies, including technology giants such as Google and Microsoft. Given the intense competition to get topflight talent, companies vie for this slot to be able to hire the cream of the graduating students first. Flipkart has so far enjoyed a Day One slot across almost all IITs, barring a couple of campuses such as IIT-Bombay. “It is a delicate situation. Many of our alumni are still at Flipkart and it would be unwise to have a kneejerk reaction,” said a placement head who declined to be named. Flipkart though is unlikely to get blacklisted unlike Zomato. Last year, Zomato was insistent that it be included in the Day One slot at IIT-Delhi. It was turned down and its CEO Deepinder Goyal expressed his displeasure in an outburst on Twitter. IITs subsequently blacklisted Zomato and did not allow it to hire on campus. The pressure on Flipkart is intensifying, with IIT-Bombay – where seven students have been hired by Flipkart – also planning to send out an email to the company, asking them to reduce the deferment period or else increase the compensation amount which is currently at Rs 1.5 lakh. They have also asked the company to provide surety that it plans to onboard all students once Flipkart’s restructuring is done with. When ET spoke to the institute in the evening, it said it was planning to send the letter to the company’s campus team later that night. ET had on Wednesday reported about a similar email sent out by IIM-Ahmedabad. Flipkart had responded saying while it would be taking on all the students it has hired, it wouldn’t be able to increase the Rs 1.5 lakh compensation for the six-month delay. “We had been kept in the dark till just a few days ago. Now it means forced unemployment for six months for students who’ve been hired by Flipkart,” said a peeved IIT-Bombay student. IITs say that some smaller startups have also been deferring or even withdrawing offers of late. But this latest development from a recruiter of Flipkart’s standing has been the biggest shock yet. “We are looking to rethink our strategy about this entire space as a whole,” said the placement chairperson of an older IIT. “We are seeing more interest in big MNCs and more stable companies.” Meanwhile, some B-schools – Flipkart has deferred offers made here too – say they will help students find alternative employment should they not want to wait till December to join Flipkart. “Flipkart’s reputation has definitely taken a big hit,” said an IIM placement head. “The decision to defer joining for 6 months has been taken after due evaluation of all possibilities and keeping in mind the timelines to complete the organisational restructuring at Flipkart. We are committed and absolutely confident of having all our trainees on board in December 2016,” Flipkart said in a clarification it posted on its website on Wednesday. Mark Messier Jersey
Zomato losses up 262% to Rs 492.3 crore in FY16; revenue doubles to Rs 185 crore
Online restaurant discovery and food ordering service Zomato’s losses are shooting up significantly as it invests heavily on online food delivery services amid the struggling food-tech category in the country. Zomato’s loss before tax has shot up by 262% to Rs 492.3 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2016, from Rs 136 crore loss in the previous year, the company’s majority investor Info Edge has disclosed in its earnings results. The Gurugram-based company’s operating revenues has also nearly doubled to Rs 184.97 crore for the year from Rs 96.7 crore in the previous year. Info Edge currently owns 50.1% stake in Zomato which has raised around $225 million till now. We’ve written to Zomato on this revenue numbers and will update once we hear back. In February, Zomato had claimed to have achieved operational break even in six countries including India, the UAE, Lebanon, Qatar, the Philippines and Indonesia. Earlier this month, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal had also claimed “they are profitable in the order business at a unit economics level, and the overall online ordering business will hit profitability when they hit an average of 40,000 orders a day”. He further noted that they are are generating 33,000 online orders as of May 8, and claimed to be the “largest player and only profitable players on a unit economics level by GMV” That being said, Zomato has had a tough past one year. It laid off about 10% of its workforce in October 2015, with majority of them in the United States that accounts for 50% of its listings. It also rolled back online ordering in four cities in January and shifted its strategy to focus more on its enterprise products in newer markets. This was in the backdrop of the entire food-tech category struggling with funding slowdown, resulting in several companies shutting or scaling down its business or getting acquired by larger companies. Rival TinyOwl is merging with hyperlocal logistics player Roadrunnr to build a combined product called Runnr while Rocket Internet-backed FoodPanda is reportedly struggling to find a buyer for its troubled India operations even at a lowly price tag of $10-15 million. That being said, online food-ordering startup Swiggy raised $35 million led by existing investors SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Norwest Venture Partners in January while online first restaurant FreshMenu raised $17 million led by Zodius Capital in the same month. Earlier this month, HSBC’s brokerage arm HSBC Securities and Capital Markets had also slashed the valuation of Zomato by half to $500 million, raised concerns around Zomato’s ad-heavy business model, its international operations and growing competition in the online food ordering segment. Goyal however had disputed this markdown saying that “nobody who knows our business has marked down our valuations” and their existing investors have categorically stated that the company’s valuations are justified. “Our existing investors are bullish about us, and are willing to back us further, if needed. Especially because we are more than doubling year on year, and the next year looks even more exciting for us” Goyal said. Jackie Bradley Jr Jersey
Your Rajdhani ticket not confirmed, book on Air India
Train passengers, who could not take their journey because of unconfirmed ticket, will now be able to fly Air India flights at the fare that will be similar to AC first class fares of trains. Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani today said that the airline has entered into an agreement with IRCTC, which will sell those tickets. “Any passenger, who could not get a confirmed ticket, will be given option of booking in Air India flights over the next twenty four hours. The fares will be AC first fares for AC first class passengers and AC II passengers will be charged AC II fares plus Rs 1,500,” Lohani said. He added that the facility is, as of now, being launched for Rajdhani trains. According to Indian railways website, an AC I ticket on Mumbai Rajdhani would cost Rs 4,750 one way. A passenger booked in AC II of Rajdhani express will have to pay the fare – one-way fare for the AC II cabin cost Rs 2,865 – plus Rs 1,500 for the flight ticket on Air India. Allen Robinson Authentic Jersey
Bonanaza for flyers: Domestic airfares 25-35% cheaper; international tickets down 15-20%
Fare wars are still on, much to flyers’ delight. Airfares are now 25-35% cheaper from a year earlier on domestic routes and 15-20% to international destinations, despite this being the peak travel season. Executives at carriers such as Vistara, SpiceJet and Air India said IndiGo had taken the lead in dropping fares this time, forcing competition to follow. If true, this would be a clear shift from the nofrills airline’s usual strategy of staying away from fare wars. IndiGo, though, denied any change in its pricing policy. The average domestic fares in the April-June quarter have decreased by up to 35% on certain domestic routes and up to 16% on international routes,” said Diwakar Pareek, vice-president of online revenue at travel portal MakeMyTrip. The fares have dropped even for last-minute bookings, said John Nair, head of business travel at travel agency Cox & Kings. Derek MacKenzie Womens Jersey