With a horrifying year belonging to the COVID-19 pandemic behind them, several companies in India are anticipating that the Union Budget of 2021 will help bring in a fresh wave of the investment cycle. It was brutally hit by the pandemic of 2020. This year the companies sincerely wish the government to extend more sops, concessions, incentives, and reliefs. The government’s multi-billion-dollar package will indeed be of great help in economic revival of India. The Union Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did take several corrective steps like the debt moratorium scheme to alleviate the stress of the companies. The government tried its best on every front to counter the pandemic induced crisis. The RBI cut interest rates a number of times – lowest in 9 years – since the beginning of the crisis. It did not change its repo rate in December due to inflation concerns. However, a section of the Industry is of the view that such investments like the bullet train, a new Parliament building, etc. during this period were unnecessary. Also Read: Bitcoin high: a bubble or an investment opportunity? Apart from the difficulties, the Industry also learned some lessons from the crisis. It feels that similar or worse events could happen anytime hereinafter and so the companies must stay on guard. India Inc hopes that India will succeed in its vaccination drive. The economy may then show healthy growth charts in the coming months after the Budget. The chief factors being rising consumer spends and a visible turnaround in rural India. This can also be viewed against the backdrop of appreciable rise in sale of tractors and commercial vehicles. Rural India was resilient through the worst of the pandemic. Rural Indian economy grew even as the rest of the economy did not. After all, food demand and supply, the fundamental ingredient for survival, never fell. The lockdowns and restrictions severely reduced consumer demand on every consumable item except the most essential goods and services. As India begins its vaccination act from January 2021, the companies are likely to start investing more given the fact that their most of their employees will return to work. Visible signs of Indian economy revival
Such signs have been triggering hopes that the economy may have finally left the worst behind. It is indeed a signal of a sustained recovery in the broader economy. These are extremely encouraging signs and would go a long way to help Indian economy to grow further. One can easily spot the onset of an economic recovery in real terms. Also Read: After Posting Rs 4,600 crore operating loss in 2018-19, Air India Aims Operating Profit This Fiscal The post Indian Economy Quickly Recovers from COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/indian-economy/
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The bidding Air India employee consortium is up against history. Very rarely to date, any airline buyout by its employees has turned out to be successful. In this ambitious dream, has emerged an unlikely and unheard-of figure trying to pilot the Maharaja of India. Meet Meenakshi MalikThe person behind this historical dream is the Air India’s Commercial Director, Meenakshi Malik. She has sent even Laxmi Mittal, the NRI entrepreneur wishing to join hands in the bidding process out of the race. The iron lady has managed to gather the support of 219 Air India employees who have pledged to rope in a hundred thousand each to buy 51% stakes in the airline. This support she garnered despite two employee unions lobbying against the bid. Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association and Indian Pilots’ Guild had cautioned their members not to be part of any bidding process. What has been her career graph?Born to an IAS Father and a doctor mother, Meenakshi Malik has seen ambition brewing since childhood. She did her BSc (Hons) in Physics, post which she aspired to become a management professional. She then completed her MBA from Utkall University in Odisha. She joined the airline 31 years ago as a management trainee and steadily climbed the growth ladder, being a part of all ups and downs of the airline. Before taking charge as the commercial director, she had been serving as the executive director of the airline. She led the famous Vande Bharat mission lauded for successfully bringing back stranded NRIs in the wake of worldwide lockdowns. Meenakshi Malik’s Air India dreamIt is not easy to own a drowning stake. But there is no stopping the iron-willed lady. She says “we know the airline inside out, we know where the problems lie. We are not bidding to win or lose, we are doing it because we believe that we can run the airline well”. Such is the sense of ownership and loyalty towards the airline that she does not fear the privatization move at all. Her dedication attracted instant support in the form of a business partner to fund the remaining 49% stake. US-based Interups Inc headed by NRI investor Laxmi Prasad had offered to join hands with the bidding employee consortium. Things don’t seem to be working out though. What happened to the Meenakshi Malik-Laxmi Prasad deal?Interups Inc has backed out of the race to acquire Air India. Its Chairman, Laxmi Prasad had taken to LinkedIn to announce that no separate physical bid would be submitted by the investment firm. Interrups Inc would be supporting the bidding employees financially from outside. The last-minute withdrawal has raised many questions though. Why two separate bids were submitted earlier is also beyond explanation. Have there been similar attempts in the past of employees buying out their airline?In India, Jet Airways employees had formed a consortium with a UK-based group to buyout their airline. The bid however fell apart. In South Africa also, a similar story was brewing in September this year. Hundreds of employees of South African Express Airways, the national carrier there, had come together to buyout the airline. It was a futile attempt though. There have been other instances of failed buyout attempts elsewhere in the world too. The hopes are now settled on the Air India bid to see if history is made or repeated in the aviation sector. The process of submitting the physical bids ended on Dec 29 of the bidding year. The much-awaited qualified bidders are likely to be announced on January 5, 2021. The real fight when then begin with the announcement of eligible players. The final winner of the much-awaited deal will take time to unveil. Till then, keep your eyes glued to the NC Airways blog for all airline related updates. Also Read: Centre open to 100% stake sale in Air India Also Read: Air India Privatisation Process Sees New Interested Buyers The post Air India Employee Bid: A Unique Instance of Its Kind appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/air-india-bid/ The stock value of SpiceJet airline had dropped to Rs 35.25 post the announcement of lockdown, it plummeted back to a high of 106.15 during the year-end in 2020. The airline sector is seeing hope again with the vaccine roll-out anticipation. The remarkable story of SpiceJet from rags to riches further gives us hope that the airline can emerge well above the covid led steep fall. Also Read: Ask The Expert: Why is Spicejet in a Hand-to-Mouth Situation? The remarkable turnaround story of SpiceJetIndian entrepreneur Ajay Singh acquired the Modiluft company in 2005, and from there we see the inception of SpiceJet. Since then the airline has seen many ups and downs. The biggest low came in 2014 when the airline was close to shutting shop. The share prices fell as low as Rs 15 apiece. There was mass chaos at airports with most of the SpiceJet flights getting canceled and stranded passengers getting all violent. Panic had spread even to the Parliament. Then came the original founder Ajay Singh who repurchased the bleeding airline and brought about a remarkable turnaround. ‘ The company reduced operational efficiency by maintaining the airline altitude and speed in such a way that fuel efficiency is increased. It made sure that the airline does not follow dirt-cheap fare sales to stay viable anymore. It made sure that the flights reach on-time and the airline comes out of its ‘never on time’ reputation. The airline launched a new advertising campaign to restore customer confidence. What also aided them greatly was a steep fall in crude oil prices and on-time government support. What is it that makes SpiceJet stand out today?Post its turnaround in 2015, SpiceJet has tried to remain a market differentiator. It goes by the strategy of never follow the crowd. Stand apart. The airline never follows a very crowded route and instead tries to start a new one. SpiceJet, therefore, follows point-to-point connectivity rather than going by the hub and spoke model. When you are the only one operating on the route, you own the liberty to schedule and price the flight as per your terms. Coincidentally, the 2017 government scheme called UDAN (‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik’) promoted several unexplored routes with subsidies. After having recognized several such profit-making unexplored routes already, SpiceJet roped in the subsidy benefits too. The ‘WET lease’ scheme of SpiceJet is another feather lending them differentiating color. While most other airline carriers own the plane or go by the ‘dry lease’ model, SpiceJet follows the ‘wet lease’ scheme. This means that SpiceJet neither owns the planes, nor the crew. It just leases them for a short time period, thus saving on the maintenance costs of old aircraft. It just gives a touch-up and its color to its fleet, puts on its red, hot, and spicy boards everywhere, and that is what gives it a distinct identity. Despite being a Low-Cost Carrier, SpiceJet came out with its own in-flight entertainment service called SpiceEngage in 2018. This add-on in a low-cost carrier definitely attracted the people towards SpiceJet. The competitors also had come up with their own in-flight entertainment systems post this. Overcapacity is an oft-quoted problem in the aviation industry. Whenever a new opportunity is spotted, all the few players rush to fill in the gap. This quickly exceeds the supply over the demand. Now either the prices have to be reduced or operations shut. It’s important to realize when to pull-out of such loss-making routes. SpiceJet is very swift in such actions. This helps the airline to avoid unnecessary losses. SpiceJet maintains a very high load factor or occupancy rate in layman terms. It means that the airline flies at its almost full capacity usually. This is despite flying on unconventional routes. This is possible with the intelligent placement of their Q400 aircraft which have a smaller seating capacity. This high usage of regional jets makes sure that the flight remains full even in unconventional routes. In May 2019, the load factor of SpiceJet stood at 94%! This definitely saves a bigtime on the operational costs. The hope aheadToday with the COVID-led crisis, SpiceJet is almost back to a new turmoil. The size of the airline today is almost three times its 2014 size. This means that with bigger employees and complex operations, the problems have multiplied too. But with a history of a remarkable turnaround, the hopes are high that the airline would quickly emerge out of the current COVID-led crisis. Also Read: SpiceJet 737 Max 8 diverts after engine fault mid-flight The post SpiceJet: In Need of Another Turnaround appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/spicejet-airline/ Civil services examination is a household aspiration in India, more so in the typical north Indian middle-class household. As soon as a child is born, his/her dream career is decided, at least in one corner of the heart by the family. The craze for the examination is such, that every year, about a million people aspire to appear for the civil services examination in India. Selection rate in civil services examinationIn 2020, more than a million people appeared for the civil services examination. This was against 796 vacancies. If we break this down further, there are some 24 services against these 796 vacancies. Not all are equally lucrative. Most aspirants aim for IAS (Indian Administrative Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Service) or IRS (Indian Revenue Service) at max. The remaining of the 24 services are usually not that sought after. If we look at the seats for these sought after services, we are left with roughly half of these 796 vacancies (approx. 398) with very liberal estimates. Now, from these remaining 398 vacancies, about half are reserved seats. This effectively leaves some 199 seats for a general category candidate to fight for. Fighting this competition is what makes a successful candidate, one in a million, quite literally! Below you can see the statistical data for the number of aspirants appearing and getting selected, every year, for the last 10 years. Hidden in this data, is a testimony of lakhs of broken aspiration every year, of students who fail to make it up to the final list. The story of broken dreams in the civil service aspirationAs seen, every year, lakhs of students appear for the exam, and not many make it up to the final list. Young students are sold dreams, and the cost of these dreams is minted by the thronging coaching centers. When the dreams are shattered, youth is wasted, and societal expectations mound, a depressed student is left with no ray of hope in life. Students committing suicide over failed attempts in the examination is a story every year. Is the examination really worth a young life? A huge number of unemployed disgruntled youth is another unwanted by-product of this crazy examination. Why is there a mad craze for the civil services?People want to be different from the crowd. They want to feel ‘important’. I still remember the school assemblies and community functions where the IAS/IPS officers of the town were invited in as chief-guests. It was right then, that the importance of these two roles was ingrained in my young mind. My aspirations in life were set by my society, by its chief-guest culture, by the things it valued. There are others like me who run after the power and prestige that comes with the service hat. Then there are people who want to be ‘change-makers’ in society. There are people who to ‘do something big’. These are usually the people who get easily disenchanted by the civil services charm once they enter the services. For the idealism in them, meets reality. If you aspire to change something, bring about the change. A doctor can bring a change, an engineer can, so can a designer. But the craze for civil services refuses to die down. The story that civil services resignations suggestThere are a series of resignations from the service every year. Yes, even after giving blood and sweat to the grilling examination process, people are disenchanted from the charm of the services and start looking for other ‘options’ in life. We know people like Shah Faesal, Arvind Kejriwal, and Bharati Ghosh who have left the services to start their political innings. We know people like Roman Saini, Dr. Syed Sabahat Azim, Rajan Singh who became successful entrepreneurs after they got over the civil services. And then, there are also people who leave the services for they do not enjoy the lifestyle or style of government functioning. Some even resign for lack of freedom of expression. So it is not as glittery a picture as the millions of aspirants every year think it is. The reality of civil services is somewhere hidden behind the clerical and mundane routine of civil servants. It is just another job, with a hierarchy and power structure to abide by. You can never be the most powerful. The open secret of corruption in servicesFor the idealist aspirants, who wish to bring about positive changes in society, there is another sad reality. Life after joining services cannot remain that ideal. The idealism is limited to the answer sheets of “Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude” paper. The amassed wealth of some IAS officers can take even the richest of businessman by storm. In March 2012, Nitesh Janardhan Thakur, 10 luxury vehicles of the class of BMW, Mercedes and more than Rs, 2 billion worth properties, that too within 12 years of service! The IAS couple Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, currently cooling their heels in jail, were found with similarly astonishing disproportionate assets. Must Read: Post CBI Vs CBI Feud: Will Other Bureaucrats Follow Aparajita Sarangi? Babulal Agrawal, the 1998 batch officer, was found to have assets worth Rs 5 billion when raided. These were hidden in some 446 benami bank accounts and some 16 shell companies. These were the people lauding for honesty, integrity and ethics before their selection. These were the people wanting to be change-agents in society and work towards the public good. These were the so-called public ‘servants’. And the history is replete with many such stories. Bribery and corruption flow in the veins of the system. It is inseparable, the degree and extent might vary. Changing role of civil servantsThe craze for civil services began with an open contest in the British era to come at par with the English ‘babus’. The power wielded by the district collector back then effectively made him the ‘raja’ of his district, the meritorious monarch. Post-independence, the IAS acquired a nation-building role. With economic liberalization, as the role of government changed from being a driver of growth to a mere facilitator of growth, the role of bureaucrats became further limited. Also See: ICAO Audit Findings: Bureaucracy Lets India’s Civil Aviation Down As can be seen from the chart below, all indicators of economy are telling a growth story, barring the number of bureaucrats appointed over the years. The GDP grew, exports grew, our forex reserves reached in billions. What remained constant, rather reduced was the number of bureaucrats over the years, and rightly so. Their role is losing relevance over the years. Another stark reality of the economy today is the burgeoning of the unorganized sector. The Economic Survey 2018-19 highlighted that almost 93% of the workforce lies in the informal sector in India. This 93% of the workforce lies outside the purview of government control and regulations. The growth of gig economy has practically rendered the role of government to negligible. The role, power and influence of a civil servant is practically nil here. Why the hype around these spectator bureaucrats then? Alternative career prospects for IAS aspirantsNow that we know many hidden truths about this most sought after career in India, some important questions need to be asked here. Should I go for civil services?Well, it is for you to find out. You know best what you want, you should also know what the services can and cannot offer. It is not a bed of roses even after you finally clear the exam. Below is the list of popular career choices in India. They all offer different perks in terms of personal aspirations, monetary benefits, lifestyle etc. As you can see, there is no clear victor! IAS cannot be deemed the best out of the lot at all.
Is civil services a good career option? Yes, it is a good ‘option’ if you are clear about what you want in life and what the services can offer. It is definitely not ‘the best’ career. It is definitely not worth your life even after you have spent substantial golden years in the preparation game. There are a plethora of opportunities waiting for you to embark on at every stage in life. You just need to come out of self-pity. You just need to move past the stumbling blocks and ‘look forward’. Taking cues from the IAS resignees, you can become an entrepreneur, a political analyst or even a politician. With the plethora of knowledge gained, you can become an educator, a mentor or a content creator. With the desire to become change-agent, you can serve in upcoming social enterprises, think tanks or policy-making consultants. Even if this does not interest you, pick up a new skill, may be coding or designing and build something! The possibilities are endless, if only you wish to explore beyond UPSC. My two centsThe unhealthy obsession of Indian society over civil servants is the root of all the problems associated with it. If only the civil servants were to be ‘change-agents’, the world would need no doctors, engineers, designers or innovators. So yes, civil services is an overhyped examination if all you aspire for is to ‘do something’ big or be a ‘change-maker’ in society. There are endless opportunities and careers, waiting to gain social respect. Look beyond. Also Read: Humbled Sonu Sood says, ‘Don’t Deserve This’ The post Civil Services: The Untold Story, and its Surrounding Myth appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/civil-services/ The coronavirus vaccine distribution in India is a daunting task. Its not easy to vaccinate a billion people. Considering that two doses have to be injected for most vaccines in development, the complexity of the task doubles. Despite India being a powerhouse in vaccine making and distribution, the challenge in front this time is huge. From choosing the right vaccine, to making it available till last mile safely, to identifying rightful groups for the early doses, everything is a challenge. India has already dealt with the identification part with the help of NEGVAC (National Expert Group on VACcine administration). NEGVAC has already laid out a broad COVID vaccine distribution strategy. To read about the vaccines in development for India and the first recognized contenders, follow the link. The major challenges have still to be dealt with. The COVID vaccine distribution challengesDealing with the logisticsA huge logistical exercise will have to be worked out for the vaccine to reach every nook and corner of India. Despite our 42 year-old immunization network that has successfully eradicated small pox and polio, This time the target is not just infants. With over 2.5 billion doses that have to be injected, we need that many trained vaccinators and that many auto-disabled syringes to prevent syringe re-use. Besides that we need a system to store and transport these vaccines at the required temperature. Our 27000 cold chain stores might not be able to handle the burden and offer reach to the remotest part of the country. Tracking some 2.6 billion vaccine dosesA database of people vaccinated and those left to be done would be required. With our 1.3 billion population, and the requirement for 2 doses for each person, it becomes all the more difficult to track. People like MS Shaw and Nandan Nilekani are suggesting the use of Aadhar to record and track each dose. Monitoring for plausible ‘adverse events’ post immunizationVaccines come with side-effects sometimes. There would be a requirement for a mechanism to transparently report these adverse side effects. Or else, fear mongering around vaccines is not new to our country. Black-marketing or fraud over vaccine accessPeople might get fake papers to become eligible for early jabs. And people might also come up with fake vaccines in the market. The authorities must be prepared to handle such circumstances. The silver lining in the COVID vaccine distribution challengeIndia already has a COVID vaccination distribution plan. The government has come up with a digital platform, CoWIN for rolling out and scaling up vaccine distribution in India. The platform will enable an Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) to provide real time information on vaccine stocks. To ensure that no logistical glitch is left, the government has also initiated a technology contest inviting all IT solutioning companies to strengthen CoWIN. The platform is expected to address issues like portability, transportation, queue management as well as tracking. Another silver lining was shown by the Delhi Airport. Indira Gandhi International Airport, the main handling point of vaccines has declared itself to be 100% ready for the vaccine challenge. It can store some 2.7 million doses at the required temperature at a time. As soon as a vaccine gets a green nod, the final tune up will have to be done for handling and then we would be good to go. The stage is ready. Four Indian states, Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat are even set to test a dry run for vaccine distribution in the first week of the new year. The dry run will include testing of cold storage and transportation, deployment of vaccinators, data entry on Co-WIN, testing receipt and allocation as well as crowd management at the sites with proper social distancing. With such meticulous preparation, things will hopefully go smooth. If the vaccine passes the new-strain test, the coronavirus vaccine distribution in India should not be a major pain to deal with. Also Read: Live stream in the era of COVID-19 The post Coronavirus Vaccine Distribution to be an Uphill Task in India appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/coronavirus-vaccine-distribution/ Political violence in Bengal is making headlines again. The BJP unit chief, Kailash Vijayvargiya has shared another story of violence erupting in Cooch Behar over his Twitter page. The Bengal violence news is all over media. The state Chief Minister is still in a state of denial. Allegedly, a violent mob led by a TMC Minister in Mathabhanga has damaged the house of BJP District Secretary, Manoj Ghosh. TMC has alleged that a TMC functionary was murdered a day before in that area. Taking violence to streets over a murder cannot be justified, more so when the violence is led by the party in power. If the TMC itself does not believe in the state machinery for law and order and for justice, what can be expected from the common man? Who will he go to for justice? Sadly, in the recent months, such incidents are surfacing one after the other. Dead bodies hanging from a tree is not just a painted scene from a movie in Bengal, it is a dark reality. A BJP Senior leader, Manish Shukla was shot dead at a tea stall in Titagarh. Be it Rabindranath Mondal or Kinkar Manjhi or Milan Haldar or Bachchu Bera, the mound of dead bodies is increasing and the blood bath is still continuing. So long is the list of political murders of BJP alone that a booklet had to be created carrying the names of the victims. In July, BJP published a booklet carrying names of some 107 party functionaries who lost their lives in political rivalry. And it is not just BJP whose workers are at the receiving end of violence. The actual number of political deaths is still a sealed up secret. Some political murders are disguised as suicides and some as petty personal feuds. The violence continues. The history of political violence in West Bengal is not new. The draconian face of the artistic and the intellectual state of India has not been hidden from public view. The state’s reputation as being highly politically conscious has been made over blood. The confrontation in the state is not due to petty communal or caste issues, it is almost always strictly political. Murderous attacks on political opponents are not a thing of today. The seeds of violence were during the Naxalbari movement itself. When Mao proclaimed that political power flows through the barrel of the gun, the habit of ingrained in the mindset of the Naxalites. As violence leads to more violence, equally brutal is the state response to any violent eruption. If we look at the list of political riots in west Bengal, Marichjhanpi massacre, Nandigram violence, or the Ek Paisa Andolan are a few names that still send shivers down the spine. Bombs are lobed, bricks are hurled, tram tracks are uprooted, public property is vandalised, and streets become a war-zone over an issue as trifle as a one paisa hike in tram fare. Violence begets violence. Equally repressive and brutal is the state response to public protests in Bengal. The Baranagar, Barasat massacre where around young men were killed by the police is an incident etched in history. The recent wave of violence in west Bengal today dates back to the 1970s. Two sensational murders of Forward Bloc leader Hemant Basu and then Ajit Kumar Biswas took everyone by storm. The extent of brutality is unparalleled in political history. In the 1970s, it was the left suffering brutalities by Congress. When the left came to power, it reciprocated with equally gruesome brutalities. The political actors kept on changing, but the bloodshed remained the same. Every power transition is marked by an even higher level of violence in west-Bengal. In the upcoming elections of 2021, people are looking for a change in the state of violence. People of Bengal need the restoration of democracy and peace. Whichever party comes to power, we hope that violence is left behind for good. Also Read: The New Bengal Innings of Asaduddin Owaisi Also Read: Trinamool Congress has Become a Family Party: Amit Shah The post Political violence in Bengal: a bloody game of thrones appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/political-violence-in-bengal/ With the travel restrictions imposed worldwide in light of COVID spread, the airline business is almost in shambles. Even in this surging storm, the Indian aviation star, IndiGo has managed a smooth sail. It is fast emerging from the slump and is gearing up for pre-pandemic demand. The company has announced its re-hiring plans already and is expected to operate with full capacity within the next three months. The company is banking on new covid induced lifestyle trends like ‘workation’ and a new ray of hope with anti-Covid vaccine roll-out. With a steadily rising Passenger Load Factor (PLF), unit revenue, and future bookings, IndiGo has enough backings for its optimism. How does IndiGo always steer its flight out of the crisis in time? IndiGo has the largest and uncontested domestic market share in India standing at about 55% as of October 2020. It is the only Indian airline operating with-profits continuously since 2009. What did they do differently? The inceptionIndiGo was a child of the storm. Born in tough times for the aviation sector, IndiGo adopted all the right things right from inception. In 2006, when Air India, Kingfisher, Jet Airways were the market front leaders, and the aviation sector was a tough spot to enter; IndiGo made its way. The entrepreneurial mindset of Rahul Bhatia and the technical airline experience of Rahul Gangwal gave wings to IndiGo in the toughest of times for the aviation industry. They had innovative and sturdy plans for the ambitious launch. With a new ‘Sale and Lease’ model, IndiGo acquired its first 100 aircrafts, all in a single go. Such a bulk purchase in a single go brought very discounted prices. This is where the cost optimization story began from. They have a lot of other interesting business lessons to learn from. What did IndiGo do differently?IndiGo heard the unsaid customer needs. When the market front leaders like Air India, Jet Airways, and Kingfisher were focusing on the full-service airline model, IndiGo came out as a low-cost carrier. It did recognize that in-flight meals and in-flight entertainment are a luxury that not many want to pay for. People opt to travel by air to save time. That is what IndiGo encashed on. It maintained high service standards like on-time arrivals, a 6 minutes dispersal rule and 30 minutes refly rule. It made sure to maintain a high air time, because that is what fetches the profits for an air-line. IndiGo valued its biggest assets. Its aircrafts and its manpower. IndiGo bought all high power aircrafts with 12-15% fuel efficiency and a very low maintenance cost. The other asset of the airline, its crew was also carefully hired and carefully taken care of with on-time salaries. Standardization is another key lesson to learn from IndiGo. With a standardized fleet of Airbus A320, the airline could maintain a standard SOP, and ensure easy job rotation. Training all its crew together and using it efficiently is what they achieved with a standard fleet. Not just optimization of resources, but optimization of cost is very essential for a low-cost airline carrier. It never gave any complimentary meals, in-flight entertainment, or fancy lounge service. When Kingfisher was embarking on a ‘fast and furious’ expansion, it fell on its face. IndiGo took its lesson and embarked on the approach of ‘expand within your risk appetite’. It operates only on profit-making routes. It had laid-off 10% of its staff in tough times of COVID restrictions. When the demand is back, it assessed it beforehand and is on a re-hiring mission again. This is what made IndiGo airline the star carrier of Indian aviation industry. Also Read: IndiGo upgrades 125 orders of A320neo jets for a bigger sister model Also Read: Fliers Stop Flying, Airlines Losses Mount; Is Anyone Gaining? The post IndiGo flight out of crisis: a revival story in Covid times appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/indigo-flight-out-of-crisis-a-revival-story-in-covid-times/ Bitcoin is picking up steam. Bitcoin highest price touched the $28000 bn mark this Sunday. A 275% plus year to date growth is more than enough for the curious to take the plunge. The market capitalization has expanded to over $500 bn. With this, the buzz surrounding the digital currency is back. Big institutional investors are rallying with their money to convert it into bitcoins. Let us find out what exactly is going on. What brought about this all-time high in bitcoin price?A tight inverse relation exists between Bitcoin and the US dollar. Bitcoin rises when the dollar falls. When the global markets and its underlying currency, USD goes down, people rush towards investing in other ‘safe-havens’ like bitcoin. With US Federal Reserve hinting towards its Quantitative Easing plans to pump the economy, the value of the dollar will depreciate further. This would mean more inflation and less purchasing power with dollar bills. This makes good news for bitcoin hoarders. People rush towards bitcoin investment as a hedge against inflation. In countries like Venezuela, to fight the excessive inflation, the government itself had to force people to own cryptocurrency to protect their purchasing power. Cryptocurrency cannot be printed. It can only be mined. Its value will not depreciate with federal bank policy decisions. The BTC supply is fixed at 21 million. With this limited source and the ever-increasing demand, the value of bitcoin is only expected to go up is what people think. Should you be part of the bitcoin mad race too?Bitcoins are not allowed to be used as a medium of exchange legally in many countries. With little mainstream usage and high price volatility, they are far from being an actual ‘safe-haven’ as they are called. Bitcoin price history has been volatile. Since the birth of bitcoin in 2009, the digital currency has seen major ups and downs. The variations in bitcoin price 2009 to 2020 can be seen in the table below. The volatility around bitcoin prices is hard to predict. Besides dollar value, there are many other factors at play that affect the bitcoin demand and price. A sudden surge in demand is seen when other investment options become unappealing or when there is some fear surrounding the federal currencies as was seen with demonetization in India. Sometimes the demand curve crashes exposing a bubble. Bitcoin bubble: what exactly it isWhen the perception of the actual asset is a lot more than its actual value, the asset is said to be a bubble ready to fizzle. For instance, back in 2008, a lot of people were putting their money in real estate. With the Lehman Brothers’ fall, a domino reaction was kicked off. The markets worldwide crashed. That was a real estate bubble. With just a market capitalization of $46 bn, Lehman Brothers had the capacity to bring global markets on a roil. Imagine what would happen if bitcoin, known to have a market capitalization of $500 bn, fizzles out as a bubble. As per financial analysts, the demand surge of 2020 is not a bubble ready to explode as this time, the investment is mostly by mature institutional investors. It is not the mad craze of 2017 amateur retail investors that pushed up prices way beyond the actual value. Also, unlike 2017, this year the price surge is due to an appetite for riskier assets following the federal bank’s stimulus package to ease the COVID impact. Some analysts go at length to predict that the BTC prices are expected to see a 10 times growth in the next 5 years. All said and done, bitcoin remains a risky venture. If your risk appetite allows, turn on your safety belt and ride the roller-coaster. Also Read: Tata steel share price takes an exciting take-off attracting investors The post Bitcoin high: a bubble or an investment opportunity? appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/bitcoin/ The quest for offbeat places and cultural exploration took me one fine day to the Saranda forests of Jharkhand. A visit to Kiriburu. The fact that they are known to be the largest Sal forests of Asia, pumped me further. After all anything with an ‘est’ attached to it is enough motivation for today’s generation to test their limits. Ho tribe inhabits the area which further piqued my curiosity. Nestled in the midst of Saranda forests lies a beautiful hill town, Kiriburu, locally called the mini Switzerland of Chaibasa. How to reach KiriburuChaibasa, the prevalent name for West Singbhum district of Jharkhand is the nearest city. It has a variety of terrain for you to explore. It has a city center with small cafes serving pizzas, it has villages spread out on plains as well as mountains for all the mountain-lovers out there. What more you can find is a lot of well-planned townships to manage the products of mining from the coal-rich state. To reach Chaibasa, the nearest airport is the Ranchi airport (4 hours away) and the nearest railway station is Jamshedpur (2 hours away). There are a number of local buses that ply from Chaibasa to Kiriburu, mostly at fixed times. Alternatively, you can hire a private taxi. Now the night owls should keep in mind that no bus or mode of travel would be found post 4 pm. The district comes under the red belt, the respect for tribal life or maybe the fear of MCC attack keeps all travels restricted to broad day light. The journey from Chaibasa to KiriburuI got myself packed some ‘sattu luchis’ with ‘chane’ from a local shop at Chaibasa and set out for the 4-hour long bus ride for a visit to Kiriburu. Moving away from the city center of Chaibasa, the outskirts were mainly lush green areas and farm lands. Spotting a lotus pond with ducks in it is also a site to remember for a city dweller like me. As the bus ride continued, my eyes were glued to the beauty outside. As small villages passed on the way, the simplicity of life there started to catch my attention. With just 3-4 hens in a bag, or with just a handful of vegetables spread out on a small gunny bag, people began their daily market. This is probably what surviving on day to day subsistence is. It seemed, filling pockets was never their idea of living. They wanted to make just enough money that they needed for a day. The simplicity and peace were so different from the hustle of modern-day city life… Now I share an insider travel trip for the explorers at heart, “to know a place best, reach its villages and talk to the locals”. Even our Prime Minister tells, ‘Go Local’, so why not? This is a rule of thumb advice that I try to follow for every new place I visit. The authenticity, the age-old folk stories, the ethnic habits, be it in food or lifestyle can be found nowhere else. Talking to my fellow bus mates, I found a lot of interesting ways the tribal ways of living during my visit to Kiriburu. A specific thing to be noticed after the sunset is the sound of music beats every single day. On these beats dance the inebriate men and women, high on a ‘Hadiya’ (a locally brewed rice beer) with their typical folk dance beats. They celebrate life each day. The untouched beauty of KiriburuA fresh smell of rain, petrichor as it is called interrupted my story. I was again drawn outside the window. Very tiny droplets of water touched my face. A lush green forest dancing in rain could be seen. We had entered the Saranda forests. Out of the tourist limelight, this quaint land looked all the more beautiful washed in rains. The soil was deep red, due to high iron ore mines in and around the region. The green color totally contrasted the deep red soil. It is not advised to venture alone in the forests. Wild elephants are quite high in number here. They might trample anything in their line of sight if disturbed. Living in harmony with ‘Jal’, ‘Jungle’ and ‘Zameen’ is something that only the tribals have learnt over time. In the middle of a dense canopy of trees, I could again start noticing a few buildings now. Probably Kiriburu had arrived. In Ho language, the word Kiriburu means ‘the elephant hill’. It is a township governed by the Sail Authority of India. Just adjoining the SAIL guest house is a very beautiful viewpoint, offering a breath-taking view of the vast stretching mountains. Just so you know, Saranda is known to be the land of seven hundred hills. And the peace you feel here is something words cannot describe. I wish I had planned a stay here, but I had to head back before dark. With a lot of peace in my heart, and memories which calm me even till date, I came back for a visit to Kiriburu. Also Read: Jet Airways Revival News Brings Cheers to Jet’s Investors Also Read: Cold wave continues to sweep as temperature drops in Himachal The post A visit to Kiriburu: an offbeat travel destination for the wanderers appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/visit-to-kiriburu/ Laxmi Prasad, the NRI investor is now a talk of corporate circles. With the headline-making air India privatization, he is in the headlines too. Investment lessons to learn from Laxmi PrasadIt was this year itself that the government announced a policy decision allowing NRIs to acquire a 100% stake in Air India. Earlier it was limited to just 49%. The hurdle of Substantial ownership and effective control clause has also been removed for NRIs. Despite these relaxations, Laxmi Prasad has offered to give a 51% stake to the employee consortium, another air India bidder. It might be puzzling for a few as to why someone who has the money would offer effective ownership to someone else. But not many understand the shrewd business mindset of investors. Laxmi Prasad has embarked upon the age-old lesson taught by the British in India. In 1765, when the British were starting to capture India, they came up with the system of dual governance of Bengal. Despite victory in the Battle of Buxar, the British passed on namesake ownership and management to the nawabs of Bengal. They only retained treasury rights with them thus avoiding any direct responsibility. Similar look the plan of this NRI investor. Joining hands with the employee consortium will amplify his chances of winning the bid substantially. Also, with ex-employees of the airlines by his side, smooth operations can be ensured given his lack of experience in the airline sector. With fluctuating oil prices, travel restrictions worldwise, an overall economic slowdown, and falling airline share prices, it might not be the best time for an airline investment. But investors think differently. Laxmi Prasad has come up with a planned $9 billion investment for the Indian aviation sector. An important investor tip in the words of Laxmi Prasad Palaypu, ‘Get introduced to one client and you have seven cross-selling opportunities’ might help you as well in the long run. It is the same business tip that has piqued his interest in the ailing airline. It is not the airline per se that he intends to capitalize on, but the massive data generation that would come with the operation of a national carrier. Yes, data is the new currency and the smart cash upon it. The chase for aviation industry data has led him to run after not just Air India but also other beleaguered airlines worldwide. Another deal that he had been pursuing earlier this year was the purchase of 49% stakes in AirAsia India. The deal could not take off. The funding source for the big billion deals-where does Laxmi Prasad get all the money from?The NRI investor is not plucking money from trees. His investment firm, Interups Inc, manages the retirement account of more than 27000 NRIs in the USA. With an asset base of $10.8 billion, Prasad is on an aggressive investment spree. He plans to multiply his asset base to ten times in the next 5 years. His company, Interups Inc, is embarking on some nine deals in India. Apart from the airline sector, the investment firm has expressed interest in Asian Color Coated Ispat Ltd (ACCIL), real estate projects by Phoenix Mills Ltd, 100% acquisition of Hotel Claridges and Hotel Intercontinental, Lavassa Corporation city among others. However, none of the deals has been concluded so far. It remains to be seen whether Laxmi Prasad Palaypu can walk his talk. For now, the Air India disinvestment has only been made more interesting for us to follow. Read more: Air India Privatisation Process Sees New Interested Buyers Read more: Air India Disinvestment: Big Move Made, Real Action Expected Soon The post Laxmi Prasad: the man trying to purchase Air India appeared first on NC Airways. Via https://ncairways.co/laxmi-prasad/ |