Manipur News

Shillong, Sep 18- Stating that UPA II is a well tested government, Union Power Minister Veerappa Moily Monday said that the UPA government would not succumb to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s pressure to roll back FDI in aviation or multi-brand retail.
“It is not a question of succumbing to this and that, but we are living with our democracy and no one can stop us from achieving development in the 11th plan and nobody can stop us now,” Moily told journalist.
Moily’s statement assumed siginificance in the wake of the Trinamool Congress’ 72-hour deadline to roll back retail FDI and hike on petroleum products.
“It (Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail) is a strong decision that we have taken and this is going to transform the entire economic scenario in India,” he added.
Banerjee government faces challenges on several fronts after the central government decided to allow up to 51 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and raised diesel prices steeply.
Allaying that farmers and conseumers will affected by the FDI, the Congress leader claimed that consumers would be get competitive rates and farmers should get a matching price for their produce.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – who had so far been accused of struggling with policy paralysis – cleared the major reform agenda a day after raising diesel prices by a steep Rs. 5 per litre and restricting the supply of subsidised cooking gas to households.
This enraged the Trinamool, the United Progressive Allaince government’s second-largest constituent, which gave a 72-hour deadline to the Congress to rethink the decisions.
The Trinamool, which is ruling West Bengal, took no time to call a meeting of its parliamentary party Sep 18. The meet will be attended by party supremo and Chief Minister Banerjee.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/upa-will-not-succumb-to-mamatas-pressure/

MNS:- Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ch. Ajit Singh has asked Air India to submit to him in a week’s time a plan to enhance its share in the domestic passenger market. The detailed plan has to include month-wise targets of market share alongwith corresponding strategy to achieve these targets for the next one year. While noting that the share of Air India in the domestic passengers carried by Indian Schedule Airlines has been maintained at the level of 18.2% (same as for July’12), the Minister has emphasized that a number of efforts have to be made by Air India to regain its number one position in terms of market share. He has asked Air India to come out with innovative and customer focused strategies to achieve optimum utilisation of all planes and also maximum utilisation of each plane.
As per passenger traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines, the number of passengers carried by them were 398.21 lakhs between January-August 2012 as against 396.31 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year showing the passenger traffic growth of +0.5%.
The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines for the month of August 2012 were 43.69 lakhs. The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines in the month of July 2012 were 45.37 lakhs. The break-up for the month of August 2012 is as follows: Air India – 7.94 lakhs, Jet Airways –8.16 lakhs, Jet Lite – 2.85 lakhs, IndiGo – 12.05 lakhs, Spice Jet – 8.07 lakhs, Go Air – 3.24 lakhs, Kingfisher – 1.38 lakhs, Religare- 0.001 lakhs.
The market share of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of August 2012 is as follows: Air India-18.2%, Jet Airways-18.7%, JetLite-6.5%, IndiGo-27.6%, Spice Jet- 18.5%, Go Air- 7.4% and Kingfisher- 3.2%.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/civil-aviation-minister-asks-air-india-to-work-out-plan-to-raise-its-share/