Category: India

  • Aviation woes

    Aviation woes

    Having followed two of country’s biggest aviation debacles of this decade, I have started accepting the fact that they may not last long. Of the two, Kingfisher is already in doldrums and I have already covered it many a times on my blog. And the other one is Air India.

    Why Air India now? Because I was just imagining what if today’s Air India was not backed by Government? It will just exactly be another Kingfisher.

    What is plaguing aviation sector in India today? Is it higher fuel costs or inefficiency? If it was the former, then how come IndiGo Airlines is in profits today after just 6 years into its operations and also be the market leader? Jet Airways had always ruled the roost in India and is on top during last two decades among Private airlines and to topple them, you need meat! And thats exactly what IndiGo did.

    What makes the airline different? For starters, it only uses one type of Aircraft, the Airbus A320. This keeps its cost in check and second, has outsourced its aircraft maintenance operations to SriLankan Engineering, a subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines. This is due to excessive taxations imposed on local MRO providers. Then it sticks to its low cost model and really does not experiment out of its core operations or have a business class on its planes. Except for its IndiGo plus services which offer on board meal and predefined seating at a small fee. While keeping the costs low, it has a very strong emphasis on on-time performance which makes it really likable for a frequent traveller. And hardly comments have come my way about rude IndiGo staff or unsatisfactory services as compared to other airlines, including Jet.

    What surprises me even more is the fact that Indigo is rapidly expanding its fleet at the same time and is currently adding a new A320 every 6 weeks!

    Now think about this with Air India and Kingfisher, both Airlines currently in doldrums while former is walking on a blanket of tax payer’s money. Air India has both Airbus and Boeing Fleet for its operations and Kingfisher is operating Airbus and ATRs, with a Boeing 727 exclusively used for UB Group. The maintenance costs for multi-make aircrafts goes significantly up as the airline has to hire specialists for a type of air craft or invest in months of training for its engineers. Air India has multi-make Aircrafts for political reasons too. India has been promoting foreign investment in India by the manufacturer in exchange of confirm orders for Airbus or Boeing.

    I am reiterating my earlier post about Air India and its treatment of employees, its Internal customers. And Kingfisher is just following suit. Strikes, delay in payments. I wish to see the aviation sector continue to grow. And I will read these very words back again.

    Feature Picture: Stock.Exchange

  • Political Slug Fest 2012

    Welcome to Political Slug Fest 2012!

    Its a Political Slug Fest approaching and every politician is making his or her presence felt. After all, its the 2014 elections approaching.

    I started wondering why so early? We are yet to live through 2013, and are not even sure if we will live through this year according to Mayan’s prediction of End of the World in December 2012. And the whole lot of Scams and publicity antics are just adding up. Do you feel that this is getting a bit over board and getting messy by the day? A quick view at the top news channel website and you will get 10 “Breaking News” at the very least. Such is the dynamics of politics in India.

    Let me start off with the smallest one. Petrol prices have been a political hot boiler for some time now and the latest news is that its cheaper by 0.56 paise!! This is definitely a welcome breaking news after the vehement protest by Mamta Banarjee. The Liquefied Petroleum Gas, or common man’s fuel prices have not been reduced, and the number of cylinders offered for a family now reduced to 3 / year in some states. Its time we all get Induction Cookers / Stoves at home.

    But, would that not increase my electricity cost?

    Kejriwal flew a political beemer at BJP by hi-jacking the hike in Electricity rates issue for consumers in Delhi. He was shown tearing apart what appeared to be electricity bills from Delhi electric distribution companies. Poor guys, they will have to still pay their bills and stand in queue for the duplicate bill as well!

    Speaking of electricity, we of course cannot forget the Coal gate, and it does need no introduction and explanation. Country cried over it, but that voice ultimately died on its own because of T20 World Cup.

    As if Cricket did not have its own problems already, India TV claimed today that they have video footage of Umpires who agreed to fix the match. Candidly called “Operation World Cup”, curiously enough,  none of the umpires featured in the sting operation were actually on the ground in Sri Lanka. How is that? or Howszzatt! or Whaterver.

    Then was the Irrigation Scam in Maharashtra where the ruling coalition party is in fix. Ajit Pawar immediately offered to resign. I was wondering why? Has it not been the trend now to still stick to your seat even if the allegations run into 6+ digits in crores? Gone are the days when moral responsibility had a meaning.

    I am sick of bigger scams, so here comes a small one. Small, albeit in the number of crores of Rupees but big when you gauge the tight slap on its face. Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi. He allegedly has taken money in return of favors from his wife’s home party politicians, DLF being the prime accused vendor.  Almost all of Congress’ top politicians came out to defend the son-in-law of party clan.

    Obviously, the above was thanks to Arvind Kejriwal who managed to sneak into DLF’s transactions and unearthed a potential political big PLUS for his party, the India Against Corruption or abbreviated IAC.

    IAC? Does it sound similar to INC?

    The issue is latest and refuses to die down. Thanks to Media, it will be alive for some days to come. And yes, I did not even started talking about Bigg Boss!

  • Blackberry is not in a mood to put down the fight

    I came across this article at GigaOM related to BlackBerry getting down and requesting Developer not to abandon the platform, given that there is a further delay in developing phones with BlackBerry 10 OS. I read the article and it pretty much sums up the feel around BlackBerry beautifully. What I really wanted to share here is this brilliant video message BlackBerry created for its developers.

    From a company that is in doldrums and facing the ire of its stakeholders for not keeping up with its competition, mounting losses each quarter and job cuts and losing their developer base to iOS and Android – this was something I never expected.

    The last parts, the developers, are key to any mobile operating system in today’s app frenzy world. The above video was created by company’s employees who are putting their heart (and many man hours) out to get BlackBerry back in shape. This for me is an example of best inspiration they could provide to its developers.

    Putting down an optimistic outlook for your partners, in such a musical way was probably not thought of before or that I am not aware of. The lyrics themselves are a brilliant use of technological jargons which developers are familiar with and instantly has this emotional connect.

    Great work BlackBerry on this one, if not on your phones yet. Kudos!

  • Aviation: a century and a decade

    Aviation: a century and a decade

    What led me to write about it? I stumbled upon a wikipedia article on Concorde and had the time to read it through. The most interesting part is what I read afterwards. Over the coming weeks, I am planning to research a bit about these and compose them for all of us to read. I am sure this is going to be interesting for all of you here.

    The Wright Brothers were the first ones to be able to commercially build an aircraft as we know today, but our history is star studded with aviators of folkfare. Leonardo DaVinci, Issac Newton and instances or references to those in Indian vedics who enabled Lord Rama and Ravan to fly across seas are just a few examples.

    But that is not I am thinking right now. There are already many who have read and written about them. I am more amazed by the fact that having formally invented an aircraft for our industralized age in 1900’s from non existance, we still had pioneers who started thinking about Supersonics in early 1950’s. A Boeing 747 was planned nd the first model manufactured by late 1960’s and it still rules the roost. And dont even think that by 2025 an Airbus A380 will be grounded. And now what I read is by 2050, we will possibly see a hypersonic (breaching speeds of Mach 8) aircraft.

    Can you imagine a world that has grown so fast. Consider space exploration for example where what was invented in 1970 is what we are using today. Or for that matter, this very medium. Internet. Being invented in 1990’s it has grown so fast.

    Whats truly amazing about avaiation is that it has enable humas to fly, and travel at twice the speed of sound.

  • SpiceJet becomes first to import fuel

    SpiceJet becomes first to import fuel

    It came to me as a surprise! It was SpiceJet and not Kingfisher that got the nod first to import Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) among all the airlines in India. This will enable Spicejet to substantially lower its operational costs which is an estimated saving of approximately 10 per cent.

    Another surprise was that it will be the Reliance Industries Ltd which is likely to import jet fuel for SpiceJet, being the only private oil marketing company that has presence in many airports across the country.

    I am wondering what happened to Kingfisher. Given its dire situation it is in today, it should have been an ideal candidate for the nod. Am sure there is some logic to this situation but unclear to me.

    SpiceJet will run a pilot to evaluate the whole process to check its economic viability.

  • India's most innovative companies

    When I saw this news, I was surprised at first and then when I read more about, I felt proud.

    Two India’s youngest companies which made it big found their names into this prestigious list prepared by FastCompany. Redbus.in and Narayana Hrudayalaya.

    “Narayana Hrudayalaya is Walmart meets Mother Teresa” is what FastCompany has to say about the hospital run by Doctor couple in India.

    Read more in detail about Narayana Hrudayalaya on Fast Company’s website.

    Organizing the scattered Bus travel industry in India takes Redbus.in to this list. A sorely missed alternative after success of IRCTC’s online railway reservation, Redbus.in managed to pull off what can be easily termed as a “mamoth’s task”.

    Read more in detail about Redbus.in on Fast Company’s website.

    Last year, another Indian company was featured by FastCompany was Shaadi.com. This is certainly a prospective proposition for other Indian comapnies to do things, differently.

  • Starbucks finally opening stores

    After I had mentioned on my blog earlier about Starbucks coming to India, yesterday it was announced that the iconic coffee chain will be opening 50 retail outlets by the end of this year. If memory serves me right, its been more than 6 years since Starbucks started thinking of putting up their chain in India. Nonetheless, its time has come. I am more than eager to see what they have to offer. The partners this time they have are already experienced in the coffee joint business in India, the Tatas (Barista).

    Tata Starbucks Ltd., a joint venture (50:50) between Tata Global Beverages Ltd. and Starbucks, will own and operate the coffee chain and would be branded as Starbucks Coffee -A Tata Alliance. Starbucks is a global leader in coffee chain business, with close to 17,000 outlets. I am not still sure about the business model that will be followed, but this influx will certainly pump up competition for enterprenurs for a franchisee of Starbucks in India. Tata will also be selling its brand of coffee named ‘Tata Tazo’ as retail via these outlets.

    What needs to be seen is how this changes things for the current market leader, Cafe Coffee Day, the branded coffee chain of Amalgamated Coffee Bean Company. Its also been romured that US based coffee chain, Dunkin Donuts is coming to Indian shores as well.

    Tatas are well set to bring a fresh change for Tata Global Bevergaes. Go go go…

  • Blackout is the online Satyagraha

    With news breaking out that one of Indian websites have been taken down due to the government censorship is exactly when the news started getting heating up in the western world. The two new legislations / regulation that are in the process of getting approved in the US Senate are now under fire from major US based websites.

    Google Doodle Blackout
    Google Doodle Blackout

    Wikipedia announced that their English website (which contains close to 4 million pages) would be blacked out for entire 24 hours. Two new regulations, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act) have stirred the hornet’s nest. Major companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, AOL have already protested against the bills, while online communities like Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing and several others have announced their plans to back out access to their websites for 24 hours.

    SOPA is being proposed to protect interests of the entertainment industry in general, which face a huge loss of revenue due to piracy. I would say, if they would start earning more money because of this bill, a poor artist could finally buy his third Ferrari and fifth Lamborghini. After all, it is what they are worth for. Sarcasm apart, yes artist do need to own rights to their creations and no one should infringe upon the same.

    Wikipedia Black out page
    Wikipedia Black out page

    The striking thing is, however, enabling this law will give governments more control over the content that a person access from his home. If government feels that a particular site violates a certain rule, it can easily be stopped from being accessed. Since there are no clearly defined limitations, it would be very easy for anyone to request a takedown of a website. And that website’s fault could just be that its content irked some government official or a political party.

  • Kingfisher enigma fails to die in Media

    Kingfisher enigma fails to die in Media

    I fail to understand why everyone is after Kingfisher. In a day, in a time span of 30 minutes there are three news that appear.

    One of them states that Airlines have mounted up debts because of Government Policies: Given the present conditions, many in media are debating whether India should have allowed 24% FDI and if they had done so, Airlines would not have been in debts. How in the world will that help is what I fail to understand? So that means Naresh Goyal wants to stack away majority of his airline stake in Mauritius and Vijay Mallya in Cayman Islands and avoid taxes in the country?

    Agreed, state sales tax on Aviation turbine fuel (aka ATF) is proving to be very costly, what if the world crude oil prices were on the same level as today’s price minus the taxes? Will the airlines still rue the same fuel and taxes cry? The fact is that ATF prices are even cheaper than Petrol in India baffles me. I understand the fact that unlike our cars, an aircraft needs that in tons.

    ATF Prices as on November 16, 2011 (per Kilo Liter)
    Delhi62310.33
    Kolkata70465.19
    Mumbai63228.40
    Chennai67018.04

    Hire me! says Tony Fernandes of Air Asia.

    The CEO of Southeast Asia’s largest airlines, Air Asia, Tony says the present condition of Air business in India because they lack focus. Frequent change of ideology from Full service to Low Cost, trying to do too many things at the same time has costed the loss they are making today. I think he is true up to a certain extent. He also says that in India, owners do not manage airlines like he does for Air Asia – which I think wont be true as Naresh Goyal and IndiGo promoters run their airlines.

    There is also the view that Kingfisher should be saved and banks should convert its debt into equity at current market prices to take a stake of more than 51%. Once acquired, they can collectively sell that stake to an investor who can afford to pay the money banks ask for.

    With so many of experts and no so experts popping up in media with their views, Kingfisher enigma will surely not fail in long time to come. Hail Media!

  • Type of Governments around the world

    Throughout the history of mankind, they have been witness to many civilizations which have arisen and fallen. These civilizations were grown up to form organized rulers from Dynasty and Kingdoms to today’s Governments. The mankind has seen and has been ruled by many governments, all of various shapes and sizes and ideologies.

    Listed below are some of the many types of government following almost the same ideology!

    1. Autocracy/Dictatorship/Totalitarianism: The common man is robbed by a single person assuming absolute power.
    2. Oligarchy: The common man is robbed by a bunch of goons having authoritarian rule.
    3. Monarchy: The Common man is robbed by a royal family.
    4. Military Junta: The common man is robbed by his own protector. A case of protector turning the predator!
    5. Capitalism: The common man is robbed by Businessmen in cahoots with the Government.
    6. Communism: The common man is not only robbed, but imprisoned, tortured and killed later on declared innocent by the government.
    7. Democracy: A queer case where the common man has the power to elect the robbers who will rob him

    This guest post is written by my friend Sandeep Nair.

  • Petrol Prices in India dip by Rs. 2, but still costly than a beer

    Often when elections near, you get some cheer! Here, have some beer!

    Beginning Wednesday, the price of petrol will fall in Delhi by Rs 2.22 a litre and by Rs 2.34 a litre in Mumbai.

    It is not very clear from all explanations we have got why this price dip now? The Minister of State for Petroleum RPN Singh states that the dip is in line with the crude oil prices and not a political decision. Ever since de-control of petroleum prices, this is the first time ever all three PSU petroleum marketing companies have reduced prices. I still have my own reasons to believe that it is not the prices; it’s the votes that have forced the dip.

    While last time around, the oil marketing companies had asked the media not to go by the international crude oil prices but see Indian crude baskets. The minister vehemently defended saying Oil companies have turned up to the media and have made it public that they will not make any profits. Pressure from all corners, including its strong ally, forced government to take this step.

    According to a report by a leading Indian News channel, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Petroleum sells most of its refined petroleum products out of India, which means its products, are exported rather than used for the domestic consumption. I am not sure about the authenticity of this news report, but if it is any true, I need to understand why?

    Globally, crude oil prices have gone up to 110$ per barrel from 80$ per barrel last year. At the same time, Rupee has depreciated against $ to reach Rs. 50 per US Dollar. This hike is caused by reduction of crude oil supply from Libya and other factors. The linked excel sheet will give you a prospective about how the Crude Oil prices have fluctuated.

    Global Crude Oil Prices from 1978. (Excel, Size: 387KB)

    Now with decontrol is in place, we have to get used to see frequent changes in prices which will reflect (according to Ministry and Oil companies) true value of a one liter of petrol that goes into your vehicle.

    Psychological Factor for our domestic market is any hike in fuel prices will in turn inflate prices of all essential commodities. Irrespective of the fact that hike might only be affecting Petrol. We all know that India’s transport sector relies on Diesel for transportation and any rise in petrol should never affect the prices for this sector. But eventually it does. Something I do not understand is how we can allow this to happen when diesel is still subsidized and we, the tax payers pay for it.

  • Troubled Kingfisher seeks help

    Troubled Kingfisher seeks help

    This is one of the many times Oil marketing companies have refused fuel to troubled Kingfisher airlines. In the past, they have done and they are doing it now too. The airline is pretty much grounded with 50 to 100 cancellations. I wonder how other airlines are able to cope up.

    Vijay Mallya, the face of Kingfisher has even gone out of his way to seek help from government which has assured him of considering any sort of help possible, however not a bailout. I don’t think Kingfisher deserves a financial bailout but yes, any assistance other ways should be considered thinking of the fate of many employees who are at the risk of losing their jobs. It is the last thing aviation industry wants to see. As well, Kingfisher has sought to import fuel directly and use it for its airline operations. Hmm, that way he can save state taxes? I need some law people to help me understand how?

    Having keenly observed the rise of aviation industry, a correction was due and airlines started responding by increasing the prices where possible and then seeking independence in pricing strategy from government. Mandates to fly non-profitable routes from government is hitting all airlines badly given the constant raise in the fuel prices. Plaguing issues like depreciation of rupee making expenditure in US Dollar or Euro terms even more costly.

    I don’t think media has the right to sensationalize the issue linking up personal lifestyle of Vijay Mallya. He is the face of the airline, which doesn’t mean he is the only one running the airline. And the state of Indian aviation does not paint a rosy picture at the same time. Linking up to personal lifestyle is like linking up our Politicians to their chairs. Politicians cannot lavish on tax payers money and neither should.

    Yes there are airlines which posted profits, like IndiGo. And if anyone asks me personally, I would like to Fly Kingfisher than IndiGo for the pure lure for luxury and something I could afford. After gobbling up Air Deccan and turning it into a Frills Low cost airline, Kingfisher Red, what Mallya has done is to give luxury to middle class. If Captain Gopinath has given Indians an airline to simply fly, Mallya gave it luxury.

    I don’t align with the theory of Mallya’s decision to shut down Kingfisher Red. One business where you have volumes, where you have more opportunities to cut costs, gets much better efficiencies. Extracting profits, leveraging your prime slots, get back to the fight with medium fares to low fares. If I was in Mallay’s shoes and I had to shut down Kingfisher Red, I would have done that differently.

    I would have brought back Captian Gopinath and ask him to manage this business separately with keeping 51% stake for myself and giving rest of the 49% for his company. And from the money I gain from the sale of 49% stake, I would have bailed out my airline. Or Captain Gopinath would not agree, I would have gone for someone else who is able enough.

    From the recent news I hear, Kingfisher is in talks with an Indian Company for a stake sale. Yay, why did it took so long?

  • Astro Garden: An cosmic solution

    Have you ever heard of an Astro Garden?

    I was a bit surprised when I read about Astro Garden in the local news paper. How much is the level of beliefs that people have? From gems to stones, metals to flowers and worshiping god on particular days, and trees. If it was anything else, I would have discounted it but when I read through the article, it felt interesting.

    Kalyan is soon to get a 1400 meter plot near KDMC office which host an Astro Garden. An Astro Garden is a garden with trees that are placed in a horoscopic layout with each tree placed in the place of planet. Two and one fourth stars make one zodiac sign and there are 27 stars for which there are 25 plants. It is known to all of us that people who believe in astrology often get into chantiing or buy precious gems/stones in combination with the metal of ornament (gold, silver, copper) to get rid of doshas (weakness) or bad phase in their horoscopes.

    Horoscope Star Map
    Horoscope Star Map – image credits

    Now they can take the trees (read saplings) that stand for their stars as well. Though the newpaper said that Saplings will also be given if someone wanted to plant the trees near their homes/buildings or society, I think even if a small amount of money is charged for each sapling, like a Rs. 5 or Rs. 10 which can go towards donating these trees to those who can’t afford it makes sense. Some times monitory value adds a bit of importance than things that come free. It should also help to keep the project viable in case of lack of funds.

    Brain child of Mayor of Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corp. (KDMC), Vaijayanti Gujar, inspiration of an Astro Garden came from a similar garden she saw in Malgoon, Goa. Apart from being an interesting concept for religious, it also encourages tree plantations. The garden will be designed by Uday Kumar Padhye, president of Cosmic Ecological Trust (CET). CET has been active in Dombivali – Kalyan region for a while and I am trying to get more information on their activities.

    I came across this news article in DNA Mumbai edition (Dombivali/Kalyan edition dated 12/11/2011) by Naveeta Singh.