India's crisis-hit national airline, Air India, received an emergency lifeline Saturday after it presented its recovery plan to the country's government.
The company has been given an extra three months to pay off its rising fuel bills and the finance ministry has been ordered to draw up a bailout package. Air India's managing director, Arvind Jadhav, met a committee headed by India's top civil servant, KM Chandrasekhar], to ask the government to inject as much as 100 billion rupees (Dh7.6bn) of new equity into the airline.
Air India is estimated to be losing US$50 million (Dh183.4m) a month and its struggle to pay off its $4bn debt pile has become a -national crisis. The extra time granted to the airline to pay its fuel bills came despite opposition from India's Petroleum Ministry, which has demanded prompt payment for Air India's arrears to state-owned refiners, which had already passed $110m more than three months ago.
The government stressed that Air India's holding company, National Aviation Company of India (NACIL), would have to make dramatic cost reductions as a price for receiving bail out money. "Any assistance from the government would have to be matched by an aggressive cost reduction and a better revenue management by NACIL," it said in its statement after the meeting.
In particular, the statement called on Air India to scrap its controversial incentive scheme, which comes to almost 45 per cent of the company's 30bn rupees wage bill, and has been used to inflate the take-home pay of Air India's executives well above that received by other public sector employees in India.
The airline has also been required to appoint an external cost auditor immediately, who will make sure that the cost savings the airline is outlining are achieved. Raajeev Batra, who covers transport at the business advisory firm KPMG, said:
"This statement further reiterates the government's commitment to bail out Air India, provided the airline puts its house in order. There is an immediate need for the airline to revisit its business operating model and service philosophy."
The committee, which included top civil servants from across the government, will meet again at the end of next month. Air India is expected to announce shortly both a new board, which is expected to include respected Indian business figures, and a new international advisory committee, which will include senior global aviation executives. The leadership at the company, which is predominantly drawn from India's civil service, has been criticised for lacking industry expertise.
business@thenational.ae
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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SPECS
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Teri%20Baaton%20Mein%20Aisa%20Uljha%20Jiya
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Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
WITHIN%20SAND
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5