- Friday, February 28, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Friday, June 30, 2023:
Airfares on major routes have experienced a decline, with the Delhi-Mumbai route seeing a significant reduction of up to 70 per cent. According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), fares on other key routes have also decreased by 5-74 per cent. The drop in airfares follows recent statements by the minister of civil aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who emphasised the importance of making air travel more affordable for the public. Efforts by the DGCA and the ministry have led to reductions in airfares, such as a 70 per cent decrease for Delhi to Pune and Mumbai flights and a 74 per cent decrease for other routes. The minister has called on airlines to self-regulate fares and maintain reasonable prices. Factors contributing to the high airfares in late May and June included the suspension of Go First’s flight operations and the Balasore train accident, which created a demand-supply gap allowing airlines to escalate prices.
Indian conglomerate Vedanta Ltd has announced a strategic review of its steel and steel raw materials businesses, Reuters reported. The review will consider various options, including a potential strategic sale of all or some of the steel operations. The decision comes as Vedanta Group, the company’s owner, seeks to address its debt burden by leveraging funds from its units. Earlier this year, the group’s attempt to sell zinc assets to Hindustan Zinc Ltd for $3 billion fell through. Vedanta Ltd has enlisted advisors to support the review process.
IndiGo, India’s largest domestic airline, on Friday announced new flights to Abu Dhabi from Lucknow and Ahmedabad, effective July 12 and August 11, respectively, Moneycontrol reported. In a statement, the carrier said the new flights “aim to strengthen international connectivity and cater to the rising demand for travel to the Middle East, strengthening IndiGo’s connectivity to Abu Dhabi”. Presently, IndiGo operates flights to Abu Dhabi from Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Hyderabad and Chennai. The news about the new flights comes amid the recent announcement by the Abu Dhabi culture and tourism department to attract 24 million tourists in 2023.
According to government data revealed on Friday, India’s infrastructure output recorded a 4.3 per cent year-on-year growth in May, marking the highest expansion since February, Reuters reported. The growth was primarily driven by increased production in sectors such as cement, steel and fertilisers. Out of the eight sectors, five witnessed year-on-year output growth during the same period. Revised data also showed that the country’s infrastructure output had experienced a faster pace of growth in February, with a 7.4 per cent year-on-year increase. In the first two months of the current financial year that began on April 1, 2023, infrastructure output rose by 4.3 per cent year-on-year.
British Airways has inaugurated its new call centre, ‘CallBA,’ located in Gurugram near Delhi, to provide an improved customer experience to travelers worldwide. The chairman and CEO of the airline, Sean Doyle, unveiled the facility, which houses 1,400 highly trained employees offering round-the-clock assistance to customers across various regions, including the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. CallBA has doubled in size since 2019 and features a cloud-based telephone system with call-flow management and access to data for personalized customer service. British Airways has increased its flights from India to London, currently operating 56 flights per week to five Indian cities, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
India’s first indigenously developed 700 MW nuclear power reactor, KAPP-3, at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP) in the western state of Gujarat commenced commercial operations on Friday, according to a senior official. The reactor reached this milestone at 10:00 am local time. Currently, the unit is operating at 90 per cent of its total power capacity. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is constructing two 700 MW pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) at Kakrapar, alongside two existing 220 MW power plants. KAPP 4 is also progressing with commissioning activities and had achieved 96.92 per cent progress as of the end of May, as reported by officials.
(Agencies)
