Business

India’s aviation regulator Saturday said it will take a call on Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines new flight schedule Monday (Feb 27).

“We will take a decision on the revised flight schedule plans by Monday,” E.K. Bharat Bhusan, director general civil aviation told IANS.

“We have to see what kind of schedule they can operate and safely operate because they have less number of aircraft now,” he said, responding to reports that the airline in its new schedule had informed the regulator that it will not operate to some major cities like Hyderabad.

Google to add do-not-track button to Chrome browserInternet giant, Google has become the latest company to agree to add a do-not-track button on its Internet browser, the Google Chrome.

The do-not-track tool will allow users to restrict web portals and marketers from tracking their activity online. Now most major browser developers offer a similar feature with the browsers after an outcry by privacy activists and a directive from US authorities.

Mumbai, February 25: Airport operations at both runways of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai will remain closed for five hours on Saturday.

Operations will be closed between 11:30 am to 4:30 pm due to installation of rapid exit taxiway lights

Flights or passengers are not likely to be affected, as airlines had been informed about this closure three months in advance.

Similar closure will take place on two other Saturdays in March.

–Agencies

Crude oil prices rose Friday after a confidential report of the UN nuclear watchdog showed expansion of Iran’s uranium enrichment program.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report increased worries about more confrontation between Iran and the West, Xinhua reported.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery gained $1.94, or 1. 80 percent to settle at $109.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For this week, it soared $6.53, or 6.33 percent.

New Delhi, February 24: Gold on Thursday regained the psychological level of Rs 29,000 after 10 weeks on frantic buying by stockists and jewellers for the ongoing marriage season amid a rising global trend.

While gold spurted by Rs 300 to Rs 29,040 per 10 grams, a level last seen on December 13, silver held steady at Rs 57,400 per kg in thin trade.

The trading sentiment in gold remained bullish as the metal jumped to a three-month high in global markets on speculation that the US will extend a stimulus to bolster the economy.

The Indian government Wednesday notified direct import of jet fuel — a long standing demand of the domestic airline industry — and called upon the interested carriers to apply for licences.

“Indian carriers interested to avail the opportunity to import ATF (air turbine fuel) directly without going through STE (state trading enterprises) route may apply to the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade),” the commerce ministry, under which the DGFT functions, said in a statement.

Popular micro blogging site Twitter is likely to hit 500 million registered users later today, a report has said.

Twopcharts, a third party Twitter analysis company claimed that the website, which processes more than a billion tweets a week, is set to hit the milestone figure soon.

The figure, however, relates to the total number of registered accounts and does not reveal how many are active, The Telegraph reports.

At present, there are 100 million active Twitter accounts, a figure which was announced by the company’s executives last September.

Amid criticism from all quarters, beleaguered airline Kingfisher’s promoter Vijay Mallya today got some sympathy from Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily who came out in his support saying the carrier “has to be saved”.

Moily, who was speaking on the sidelines of an Assocham event here, said Mallya has met him as both of them hail from Karnataka and that he should work out a strategy acceptable to the Finance Ministry.

The rupee was pulled off a two-week high touched in early trades on Tuesday due to strong dollar demand from oil refiners, the biggest purchasers of the greenback in local currency markets.

Some companies bought dollars to repay maturing foreign currency convertible bonds, which also weighed on the rupee, traders said.
At 2:38 p.m. (0908 GMT), the rupee was at 49.19/20 to the dollar, after touching 49.05, its highest since February 8, according to Thomson Reuters data. It had ended at 49.27/28 on Friday.

Japan logged a record trade deficit in January, government data showed on Monday, the clearest evidence to date of pain from a firm yen, a global slowdown and rising fuel imports needed to offset declining use of nuclear power.

Japan’s exports slumped 9.3 percent in January from a year earlier, slightly less than the median market estimate of 9.5 percent but still the fourth straight month of decline, in a sign the economy could struggle to recover even as reconstruction from last year’s earthquake and tsunami proceeds.

In a major setback to the Kingfisher Airlines, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has summoned its CEO Sanjay Aggarwal, as the airline continues to cancel flights for the third consecutive day.

Clearing the air of speculation of a bailout package for the beleaguered airline, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said “It is upto the banks to decide on providing loans to Kingfisher.” He asserted that it is not the government’s job to bail Kingfisher out of the trouble zone.

China is set to surpass India as the world’s top gold consumer this year, the World Gold Council (WGC) predicted.

The demand for gold in China, the world’s largest producer, rose by 20 percent to 769.8 tonnes last year, driven by surging demand for jewelry and investment, while consumption in India, the world’s largest consumer, tumbled 7 percent to 933.4 tonnes as a result of volatile gold prices and a weak rupee, the WGC said in a report Thursday.

Brent crude rose on Thursday for a fourth day in a row, topping USD 120 a barrel at settlement — an eight-month high on worries about supply from Iran and from the North Sea, where output was expected to dip next month.

The euro’s rebound against the dollar also boosted crude oil on both sides of the Atlantic.

Japan’s Nikkei average jumped nearly 2 percent in active trade on Friday on the back of robust US economic data, and as expectations grew that Greece would secure a long-awaited bailout next week.

But market strategists said the benchmark was unlikely to go much higher over the next trading day or two.

“I do think we have already touched our peak level around 9,400 and the market will likely pare gains for the rest of the day,” said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.

The BSE benchmark index Sensex shot up by over 192 points in early trade today on frenzied buying by funds and retail investors, triggered by a firming trend in global markets.

The 30-share index,which has lost 48.42 points yesterday, spurted by 192.20 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 18,346.19 points with banking, metals, oil and gas and realty stocks leading the rally.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved up by 53.65 points, or 0.97 per cent, to 5,575.60.

The capital has the the highest per capita income in the country recorded at Rs.1,16,886 in 2009-10.

“The per capita income of Delhi during 2009-10 was Rs.1,16,886, which is also the highest among all states and union territories,” stated the report titled “Level and Pattern of Household Consumer Expenditure in Delhi.”

The report also reveals that monthly per capita expenditure of 51 percent of the total household in Delhi is Rs.2,501 and above.

Stagnant demand in Europe and weak demand in the US will not hinder leather exports from India and it is expected to retain growth of over 10 percent next fiscal backed by rising demands in markets like Africa and Brazil, trade officials said Wednesday.

“With production base stagnating in Europe (following the Eurozone crisis) and slow demand growth in the US (two of the major importers), the government is looking at other markets,” India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) executive director Neeraj Kumar Gupta said.

Top Indian carrier Jet Airways has sought government help to secure additional working capital loans from banks and an extended credit period from state-run oil marketing companies, a daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The airline, which has a two-month credit period with oil companies, hopes to get this extended to three months, the report quoted an unnamed company official as saying.

Jet also wants help to secure Rs 10 billion in working capital loans, the official added.

Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport has been ranked the second best airport in the world, according to the 2011 Airport Service Quality rankings of Airport Council International (ACI).

The IGI Airport has bagged the second slot in the 25-40 MPPA category.

The airport has however, ranked 6th across all categories in 2011 with a score of 4.72 of a possible 5 in the airport service quality index. In 2007, the airport had scored 3.02 on the ASQ and did not manage a rank in the top 100.

The airport now handles of an annual passenger capacity of over 60 million.

A benchmark index for Indian equities markets shot up in morning trade Wednesday to cross the 18,000-mark, a level unseen since six months. Strong cues from Asia helped buying sentiments.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 18,000.3 points, and was ruling at 18,129.21 points, 280.64 points or 1.57 percent up from its previous close at 17,848.57 points.

The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading higher at 5,499.4 points, up 83.35 points or 1.54 percent from its previous close.

New Delhi, February 15: Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport has been ranked the second best airport in the world, according to the 2011 Airport Service Quality rankings of Airport Council International (ACI).

The IGI Airport has bagged the second slot in the 25-40 MPPA category.

The airport has however, ranked 6th across all categories in 2011 with a score of 4.72 of a possible 5 in the airport service quality index. In 2007, the airport had scored 3.02 on the ASQ and did not manage a rank in the top 100.

New Delhi, February 14: Headline inflation fell to an over two-year low of 6.55 percent in January on cheaper food items, which may prompt the Reserve Bank to cut policy rates in the coming months.

Headline inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), had stood at 7.47 percent in December 2011. It was 9.47 percent in January last year.

The latest numbers are the lowest since December 2009 when headline inflation was at 7.15 percent.

Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Tuesday ruled out deregulation of diesel prices and said he had demanded that the government compensate state-owned oil firms for the losses they made on not raising prices of petrol.

“Deregulation of diesel in entirety is very difficult proposition but at appropriate time we may look at reducing subsidy on diesel. But that time hasn’t come,” he told reporters here.

State-owned oil companies will need to raise diesel price by Rs 11.35 per litre if the government was to free its pricing like it was done in case of petrol in June 2010.

New Delhi, February 14: Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion US dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens, the CBI Director said on Monday.

India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands etc.

If you have a habit of dropping cheques in the deposit box of ATMs, then beware. Your cheques may get stolen and end up being deposited in some fake bank accounts for encashment.

A state-wide gang that has mastered the art of stealing and encashing cheques from ATM drop boxes has been striking at will in different cities. Right from Ahmedabad to Vadodara and Surat, this gang has stolen cheques and siphoned off money worth lakhs of rupees within a matter of few days. Some members of this gang have also committed similar offence in Mumbai.