New Delhi, The crisis in Air India continued as pilots' strike entered its fifteenth day on Tuesday. The national carrier had on Monday sacked 30 more of its striking pilots, taking the number of pilots who have lost jobs so far up to 101. Earlier, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has sought support of all Air India unions to restore the airline's financial health and its past glory. In a meeting with leaders of Air India unions, Singh said the recommendations of the Dharmadhikari Committee, which went into all issues like pay parity and career progression, would be implemented only after all the unions are consulted. Meanwhile, General Secretary of the Air India Engineering Association, Pradeep Bhogale, said that the minister had appraised the unions about the government's intentions for a turnaround plan to improve the ailing national carrier's sagging position. "He (Singh) informed us about the 30,000 crore rupees equity infusion by the government of India. He informed that with this equity infusion, there is a turnaround plan, and that there are milestones (which) we have to cross, and we have to bring back the glory (that) was with Air India," Bhogale ...
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New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh will meet representatives of all recognised trade unions of Air India next week to discuss the Justice Dharmadhikari report on human resource issues, including career progression and promotion of pilots. "I am just going to say that I have decided, I am calling a meeting next week of all the recognised trade unions of Air India because in that recovery plan, there will be big stake, we will discuss them, we will inform them what is the plan and also many of their promotions have been held up for many years," Singh told mediapersons here on Thursday. The meeting is expected to have all the representatives of recognised trade unions excluding the association of Indian pilots, who is spearheading the strike. The Ministry of Civil Aviation had earlier constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari, Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India to address various industrial relations issues. The Group of Ministers' (GOM) meeting held on February 7 has also desired that Justice Dharmadhikari committee recommendations be examined by the first week of March 2012. This committee will look into various ...
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New Delhi, A week-long panorama of Kuwaiti culture which opened in the capital May 15 has for the first time brought arts, crafts and performing traditions of the ancient port-nation to India to strengthen people-to-people cultural ties between the two countries. The culture showcase, presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Embassy of Kuwait will move to Jaipur from the capital before closing May 19. "The festival is a reciprocal gesture by Kuwait in response to a Festival of India in Kuwait in 2009. Kuwait and India share similar Islamic influences in architecture, tradition, festivals and rituals. The two countries share ancient trade links as well. Kuwait is one of the most peaceful countries in the Gulf region," director-general of ICCR Suresh Goel told IANS at the inauguration of the festival. "Ties in the contemporary context are more people-centric with a large number of Indian people working in Kuwait and adding value to its economy and social structure," Goel said. Independent surveys say nearly 600,000 Indians are currently living in Kuwait, a source in the embassy said. The Kuwait Cultural Week opened with an extravagant ...
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New Delhi, The Air India pilots' strike entered its fifth day on Saturday amid continuing cancellations and passengers' inconvenience even as an association of senior executive pilots have written to the Prime Minister to step in and resolve the crisis. This senior pilots' association of former Air India said the management was responsible for the strike since they violated the terms of merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. This group supported the striking Indian Pilots Guild and said that agreements of merger were not honoured. According to media reports quoting their letter to the PM, an Air India pilot can become a commander after ten years of flying while Indian Airlines pilot reaches that position in five years. Meanwhile, at least 16 flights originating from Delhi and Mumbai were cancelled during the day, Air India officials said Saturday morning. On Friday the management had sacked 25 more pilots as the national airline’s services were crippled by the strike. The pilots, who are protesting against a disagreement with management over salaries, job promotions and training, remained defiant even as the tally of fired pilots reached 71, Air India ...
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Mumbai, Four international flights were cancelled and several domestic flights re-scheduled Saturday as the Air India pilots continued to strike for the fifth day, leaving passengers stranded at the airport terminals. The flights cancelled by Air India include Mumbai-London-Mumbai, Mumbai-Riyadh-Mumbai, Mumbai-Newark-Mumbai and Mumbai-Delhi-Shanghai-Delhi-Mumbai. Several domestic flights have also been cancelled and rescheduled as the stand-off between the pilots' association and the management continued on the fifth day. On its part, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), while accusing Air India management of backtracking on its commitments sought Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's intervention and appealed him to "open negotiation channels" to resolve the crisis. Management of Air India has taken action against 71 pilots in four days and also written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asking it to cancel the licenses of 11 office bearers of the IPG whose services have been terminated. The carrier has also chalked out a contingency plan to restore partial international flights starting Monday. Trouble started for the airline Tuesday when pilots ...
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New Delhi, Amidst crises in Air India and Kingfisher Airlines, the aviation regulator has warned other airlines not to hike fares, a day after the Rajya Sabha was rocked over the issue of rising cost of air travel. "We have advised the airlines not to go ahead with the fare hike. There is no current reason for such a hike as the operating costs have not increased. We are very closely monitoring the situation. No airline will be allowed to take undue advantage of the situation," a senior official with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told IANS here. "Our fare monitoring cell is keeping a watch over the prices all the time. Airlines have to display accurate fares all the time," the official said adding that action would be taken against any airline which indulges in these activities under Rule 135 of Aircraft Rules of 1937. The development comes as national carrier Air India and Kingfisher Airlines are both facing employee-unrest and have cancelled several flights. Air India had to even stop bookings on some of its ultra long-haul routes till May 15, effectively cancelling more than 15 flights per day to major sectors such as the US, Europe, and some ...
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New Delhi, If the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) stays away from work despite the HC order, then Air India may witness its biggest ever showdown between pilots and management. Aviation minister Ajit Singh warned that the nearly bankrupt airline's hopes of getting Rs 30,000 crore of public money could be dashed if its employees continued to behave in this manner, adding to its losses. In its ex parte order, the Delhi HC on Wednesday restrained the pilots from reporting sick and staging demonstrations or protesting near AI offices across the country. Justice Reva Khetrapal issued notice to IPG and asked it to reply to a plea of AI management seeking court's intervention and also a restraining order against the striking pilots. IPG has been on strike from Monday night and several of AI's long-haul international flights have been cancelled, including 13 on Wednesday, by when the number of pilots reporting sick had reached between 300 and 350. Coming to flyers' rescue, the HC order said allowing such strike to continue will cause irreparable loss to the company as well as huge inconvenience to the passengers. AI counsel said the airline was facing huge financial losses of over ...
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New Delhi, NRI kids Abhigyan (3) and Aishwarya (1) Bhattacharya on Tuesday finally return to their family in India after a Norwegian court ruled that their custody should be handed over to their uncle. The flight carrying the NRI kids landed at the New Delhi airport on Tuesday morning. This brings to an end a family tragedy that grabbed headlines in India, disrupted ties between New Delhi and Oslo, and even required an intervention by the PM with his Norwegian counterpart. As soon as the court gave its ruling, the MEA swung into action. Led by Balachandran from the Indian embassy in Norway and other senior officials, the children, their Norwegian foster parents and their uncle were whisked out of Oslo on a commercial flight to India. The parents of the children, though, continue to remain in Norway. Anurup Bhattacharya, the father of the kids, said, "I was greatly relieved after hearing the verdict. It had been a major fight for the last one year. It changed our life completely.Even the life of our children had been affected. They have forgotten their mother tongue. I am happy they are returning ...
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Jakarta, An earthquake of 8.7 magnitude struck off the coast of Indonesia on Wednesday, sending residents there and in India dashing out of their homes and offices in fear. A tsunami warning was issued for the whole Indian Ocean. The quake struck 308 miles (500 km) southwest of the city of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, at a depth of 20.5 miles (33 km), the US Geological survey said. The quake was felt as far away as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and in southern India, residents said. Hundreds of office workers in the Bangalore left their buildings, workers there said. The quake was in roughly in the same area as a Dec 26, 2004, quake of 9.1 magnitude, which sent huge tsunami waves crashing into Sumatra, where 170,000 people were killed, and across the Indian Ocean. In all, the 2004 tsunami killed about 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. The 2004 quake was at a depth of 18 miles (30 km) along a fault line running under the Indian Ocean, off western Indonesia and up into the Bay of Bengal. The quake was also felt in Sri Lanka and the southern Thai holiday island of Phuket, both of which were ...
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Washington, Many regions of India continue to grow rapidly and are opening door for "unprecedented" opportunities for American companies, US commerce secretary John Bryson has said. Bryson, who was on a visit to India last week with a 16-member business delegation, said on Monday that his three-city India trip laid groundwork for a greater US-India trade and business partnership. "During last week's trade mission, we took concrete steps toward strengthening our commercial relationship with India," Bryson said in a statement on his return from India. Bryson traveled to New Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai wherein the focus was on the India's need in the infrastructure sector. In the next five years, India is planning to invest USD 1 trillion in the infrastructure sector. "American business leaders connected with Indian firms to create new opportunities in India's rising infrastructure and renewable energy sectors. We met with government and business leaders and laid out our goals, as well as our concerns," he said. "We saw first-hand how India's many regions continue to grow rapidly - opening the door for unprecedented opportunities. We launched a promising new partnership ...
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Dubai, A computer virus from China has been targeting users in India as well as in China, and as many Indian companies are based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), they need to be "extra careful", an expert has said. Virus attacks on computers have increased to such an extent that officials in Dubai have warned computer users to be alert and vigilant, the Gulf News reported. "Don't connect to wireless network and your computer doesn't have programme, it's possible to get virus or worm e-mail," Dubai Police wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter. Nick Black, technical manager of Trend Micro, a computer security company, told Gulf News that the attacks were not targeted at specific networks. He said that in the last few days, a virus from China has been "floating around and is targeting users in India and China". Since many Indian companies are based in Dubai, "they need to be extra careful", he ...
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ਭਾਰਤ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਟੀ.ਬੀ. ਦਾ ਅੰਤ ਕਠਿਣ ਹੈ... ਕਿਉ ਕਿ ਟੀ.ਬੀ. ਕੋਈ ਅੱਜ ਦੇ ਯੁਗ ਦੀ ਬੀਮਾਰੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਨਾ ਹੀ ਆਧੂਨਿਕ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੀ ਦੇਣ ਹੈ ਮਿਸਰ ਵਿੱਚ 3000 ਸਾਲ ਈਸਾ ਪੂਰਵ ਦੀਆਂ ਮਮੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੀ ਟੀ.ਬੀ. ਦੇ ਲੱਛਣ ਮਿਲੇ ਹਨ। ਅਜਿਹਾ ਪ੍ਰਤੀਤ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਮਿਸਰ ਦੇ ਫਰਾਓ ਰਾਜਾ, ਅਖਨਾਤਨ ਅਤੇ ਉਸ ਦੀ ਖੂਬਸੂਰਤ ਮਹਾਰਾਣੀ, ਨੇਫਰਤੀਤੀ ਦੀ ਮੌਤ ਟੀ.ਬੀ. ਦੀ ਵਜ੍ਹਾ ਤੋਂ ਹੋਈ ਸੀ। ਮਿਸਰ ਵਿੱਚ ਤਾਂ 1500 ਈਸਾ ਪੂਰਵ ਵਿੱਚ ਟੀ.ਬੀ. ਹਸਪਤਾਲ ਹੋਣ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਮਾਣ ਵੀ ਮਿਲੇ ਹਨ। ਬੈਕਟੀਰੀਆ ਵਲੋਂ ਪੈਦਾ ਹੋਣ ਵਾਲਾ ਟਿਊਬਰਕੁਲੋਸਿਸ ਯਾਨੀ ਟੀ.ਬੀ. ਇੱਕ ਅਜਿਹਾ ਸੰਕ੍ਰਾਮਿਕ ਰੋਗ ਹੈ ਜੋ ਅਨੰਤਕਾਲ ਤੋਂ ...
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New Delhi, Unhappy with Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal's bowling action, senior Indian cricketers have reportedly complained to the International Cricket Council ( ICC), sources said. Sources said that senior players feel that Ajmal chucks while bowling. India crushed Pakistan by six wickets in their Asia Cup clash in Mirpur on Sunday with Virat Kohli hitting a magnificent 183. The Pakistan bowler has a bagful of tricks, he deceives batsmen with his flight and guile, and the latest addition to his repertoire is the teesra. Unlike the doosra, which goes the other way, it goes straight after pitching, with the batsmen playing for the turn. Ajmal used it brilliantly in the Test matches against England and even in the first game of the Asia Cup, he brought the delivery into play to win Pakistan a tight game against Bangladesh. With the demands of instant cricket in mind, a spinner constantly has to work on variations. Ajantha Mendis brought the carom ball to the game but it got a little too predictable after a point of time and the Sri Lankan bowler went on lose his place in the team. The obvious query for Ajmal was how he bowls the teesra to such devastating ...
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Washington, Even as overall growth in the G20 slowed in the fourth quarter of 2011, growth increased strongly in India and Indonesia, modestly in the United States, but slowed somewhat in China, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The G20 Quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of +0.7 percent in the last three months of 2011 compared with +0.9 percent in the third quarter, according to provisional results from this first time release of the G20 GDP aggregate. In 2011 as a whole, G20 GDP rose by +2.8 percent, a marked deceleration compared with the +5.0 percent growth recorded in 2010. The G20 GDP aggregate masks diverging patterns among the world's largest economies, IMF said noting in India and Indonesia growth increased strongly from + 0.9 percent to + 1.8 percent and from + 1.4 percent to + 2.1 percent respectively. However in terms of annual percentage change and percentage change on the same quarter of the previous year India's growth rate fell from 7 percent in the third quarter to 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter. In the United States, GDP growth increased to +0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with +0.5 percent in ...
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New Delhi, Industry body ASSOCHAM on Friday called for increasing the tax holiday period for highly capital intensive oil and gas exploration industry which has a long gestation period and is strategically important for the country. Provision of section 80-1B (9) of the Income Tax Act should be amended to extend the period of seven years of tax holiday to ten years and to allow flexibility to companies involved to chose the period during initial 15 year period of operations. During the initial seven years, companies have large expenditure to set off and hence the actual benefit of tax holiday does not reach them, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). This period is less than the tax holiday period available to companies in infrastructure sector like power generation and distribution. Considering the country’s energy requirements, the sunset clause for commencement of refining should be extended by a year to March 31, 2013. “It is expected that extension of tax holiday will benefit refining companies starting operations in 2012-13 and the benefit be passed on to consumers,” said president Rajkumar Dhoot in a pre-Budget ...
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New Delhi, Asserting that India-Africa cooperation needs to be built on principles of shared vision, and mutual understanding, Union Minister for Science And Technology Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday said that the soft prowess of scientific and technological cooperation can be effectively leveraged by building bridges between the scientific communities of both the nations. Addressing the two-day conference of India Africa S&T Ministers here, Deshmukh said: "We have assembled here to develop a new platform and a concrete road map of cooperation in science, technology and innovation with African countries. This value based cooperation needs to be built on principles of shared vision, mutual understanding and goodwill." He further said that there are several 21st century challenges, which India and African nations have to meet together in their journey for economic development. Science, Technology and Innovation could play an effective role in meeting some of these common challenges. For instance the requirements for food, energy, water and affordable health care are common challenges. The adverse impact of climate change is a shared global concern. Inclusive growth is a ...
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New Delhi, India and Italy Tuesday agreed to "clear the air" over two Indian fishermen being killed by the crew of an Italian ship but maintained that differences over legal issues remained. Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant’ Agata here that the "unfortunate" incident of killing of two Indian fishermen earlier this month had caused "very strong public opinion on both sides". "We have agreed to clear the air," Krishna said, assuring that both nations had expressed their "will and commitment" to strengthen their partnership. Terzi is in India on a two-day visit beginning Tuesday. He had met Krishna ahead of the media interaction. Terzi, in his remarks at the press conference, said the two sides continued to have "differences of opinion" over the legal aspects of the killing of the fishermen. He said Italy maintained that international maritime laws applied in the case. India holds that its domestic laws will apply in the trial of the two Italian marines, currently in Indian police custody in Kochi. Terzi, who expressed Italy and its people's condolences to ...
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New Delhi. India, China, the US, Russia, Brazil and another 21 nations have decided to retaliate against the EU decision to collect billions of dollars every year by unilaterally imposing a carbon tax on flights landing in Eurozone. The retaliatory measures decided include reviewing or abrogating the bilateral service agreements and open skies' agreements with each European country, suspending all negotiations on operating rights for the EU airlines and aircraft operators and imposing additional levies and charges on flights coming in from European nations. The fallout could hit the domestic consumers hard since the number of European flights landing and flying from India could be reduced and the cost of tickets could increase exponentially. The decision to launch an all-out trade war against EU airlines was taken at a meeting of the 26 countries in Moscow on Wednesday after the EU refused to withdraw the unilateral carbon tax on fliers from other nations. The measure would help EU pocket around $1.5 billion starting 2013 that will go up every year, thanks to the annual carbon tax at the cost of fliers from India and other countries ostensibly to combat climate change, some ...
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New Delhi, BCCI president N Srinivasan denied any rift within Indian team saying there is no such issue as he is in constant touch with the team management. Srinivasan tried to downplay the issue of rift between Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and opener Virender Sehwag over fitness of senior cricketers and team selection. "We are in constant touch with the management. However, we have not asked for any report in the matter," said Srinivasan. Earlier in the day, reports suggested that Dhoni and Sehwag stood divided over the team selection ahead of the Sri Lanka match of the tri-series. Reports said that both the players provided their playing eleven before the start of the match on Tuesday. While Dhoni wanted Rohit Sharma to play against Sri Lanka, stand-in skipper Sehwag was keen to play with three senior players. Earlier on Tuesday after crushing defeat to Sri Lanka, stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag took a jibe at MS Dhoni for suggesting that senior batsmen were being rotated because they were slow movers on the field. Reacting to Dhoni's comments that the trio of Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar were "slow fielders" and that playing them ...
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Washington, The Obama administration has exuded confidence that it would comfortably sail through the challenging phase in its relationship with India on the issue of purchase of oil from Iran. "We've worked through hard issues before with India, and we're looking forward to working through this one," the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, told reporters at her daily news conference. Nuland said the US is talking to India along with other countries like China on reducing their dependence on Iranian oil. "Our goal is to continue to work with India to encourage it to do what it can to reduce its dependence on Iranian crude. We will continue those discussions," she said. "We have been saying for a number of weeks now, we're also working with oil producers who might be able to provide alternative sources of supply. This includes a number of countries around the world," Nuland said. The State Department spokesperson said the US has been talking with countries around the world about the implications of the legislation with regard to its expectation that countries will increasingly wean themselves of dependence on Iranian oil. "We're talking to India, ...
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