NEWS TODAY 20 -22.03.2024

 

Customer-facing parts of Air India-Vistara merger won’t change before 2025: AI CEO

Customer-facing parts of Air India-Vistara merger won’t change before 2025: AI CEO

2 min read 20 Mar 2024, 04:17 PM IST  Join usAnu Sharma

Campbell Wilson said Vistara would eventually be subsumed under the globally recognised Air India brand, but not until “some time next year”.Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson. Photo: Reuters

New Delhi: The merger of full-service carriers Air India and Vistara is a complex process and customer-facing elements, including the brand, won’t change before 2025, Air India’s chief executive and managing director Campbell Wilson said.

"Behind-the-scenes planning is underway. The regulatory and legal [approvals] are in process. The customer-facing elements will take some time [to change] and we are not rushing it," Wilson said at the Skift India summit on Wednesday.

Air India, a state-run airline for 69 years, was reacquired by the Tata Group under a government-led strategic disinvestment programme in January 2022. Later that year the Tata group announced a merger of Air India and Vistara.

Vistara, currently a 51:49 joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, commenced operations in 2015. After the merger, Singapore Airlines will hold a 25.1% stake in the combined entity.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) recently gave conditional approval to the merger, six months after the Competition Commission of India approved it in September 2023. This will allow the two airlines to efficiently plan their routes and codeshare network.

"We have been very clear that Vistara in the long term will become Air India. The Air India brand is 92 years old. It is recognised around the world. Vistara has a very, very strong reputation and awareness in India, but not so much globally," Wilson said.

"A lot of the things that we are doing are modelled on what Vistara does, but we will eventually be collapsing the two. As I say, we won't be rushing it. It will probably be [completed] some time next year," he added.

Air India, which carries about 12% of international air traffic to and from India, also sees an opportunity in the medium-haul and long-haul international market. The airline said the order for 470 aircraft that it placed in February 2023 will help it address this capacity shortage in India’s large market. The Air India group has been procuring aircraft from the new order at a rate of one every six days, with three A350s and more than 15 Boeing 737 MAX inducted so far.

"India can be home to at least three hubs. In addition to those, there are plenty of point-to-point services. [The market] is probably a similar sort of size to [those of] Europe or North America. North India has a good east-west flow, and south India has a good Asia-Africa and even Australasia-Europe flow," Wilson said.

Air India’s desire for multiple hubs in India is shared by the broader industry and the civil aviation ministry. The government is working on a National Aviation Hub policy which will encourage more non-stop flights from international destinations to Indian metro cities and seek to establish hubs similar to those in Singapore, Dubai and Doha.

"The international opportunity is staring everyone in the face. In [some hubs], upwards of 70-90% of people are not going to that place – they are going through that place. I think if we get the basics right and are credible, we will get the time-sensitive, discerning, premium traveller who values the experience that we are going to provide," he added.

Sadhguru's brain surgery | ‘Despite severe headaches…’: What hospital said

Sadhguru's brain surgery | ‘Despite severe headaches…’: What hospital said

By HT News Desk

Mar 21, 2024 06:08 AM IST

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev had been suffering from severe headaches for last 4 weeks. Despite pain, he conducted a Maha Shivaratri event on March 8.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a renowned Spiritual leader, underwent an emergency brain surgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi after suffering “life-threatening” bleeding in the skull and is now recovering well, a senior doctor said in a statement on Wednesday. The hospital said Sadhguru had been suffering from severe headaches for the last four weeks. Despite the severity of the pain, he continued with his normal daily schedule and social activities and even conducted a Maha Shivaratri function on March 8.

Spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev after an emergency brain surgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi. (PTI)

On Wednesday, Sadhguru also posted a video on his Instagram account from his hospital bed. “The Apollo hospital neurosurgeons cut through my skull to try and find something but found nothing – totally empty. So they gave up and patched it up. Here I am in Delhi with the patched-up skull but no damaged brain,” Sadhguru said in a lighter vein.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to the spiritual leader and wished him a speedy recovery.

"Spoke to @SadhguruJV Ji and wished him good health and a speedy recovery," Modi said in a post on X (formally Twitter).

Responding to Modi's message, Sadhguru said he was “overwhelmed” by the prime minister's concern.

"Beloved Pradhan Mantri ji, I should not be a concern to you. You have a nation to conduct. Overwhelmed by your concern, on my way to recovery. Dhanyavad," Sadhguru wrote.

What did hospital say about Sadhguru?Sadhguru's headache got extremely severe by March 15 when he consulted Dr Vinit Suri, senior consultant neurologist, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi, about 3:45pm.

Dr Vinit Suri immediately suspected a sub-dural hematoma and advised an urgent MRI. Sadhguru underwent an MRI of the brain at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals at 4:30pm the same day, and it revealed massive bleeding in the brain.

There was evidence of a chronic bleed of 3-4 weeks duration along with another fresh bleeding of 24-48 hours duration. Sadhguru was advised immediate hospitalistion, but he had important meetings scheduled at 6pm on March 15 and the India Today Conclave on March 16.

According to Dr Suri, Sadhguru mentioned “I have never missed a single meeting in my last 40 years”, and despite severe and agonising symptoms, he completed the above meeting under the support of painkillers.

On March 17, Sadhguru developed a progressive decline in his level of consciousness along with weakness of his left leg with marked worsening of headache with recurrent vomitting, and was finally admitted to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals under the care of Dr Vinit Suri.

According to Dr Suri on March 17, when Sadhguru finally agreed for admission, he mentioned “now is the time for you to perform the procedure”.

Sadhguru had a rapid worsening of his neurological status on March 17 and an urgent CT head revealed a marked increase in brain swelling and life- threatening shifting of the brain to one side.

Sadhguru was managed by a team of doctors comprising Dr Vinit Suri, Dr Pranav Kumar, Dr Sudheer Tyagi and Dr S Chatterjee and underwent an emergency brain surgery within a few hours of admission to remove the bleeding in the skull. Sadhguru was weaned off the ventilator post-surgery.
Sadhguru has shown steady progress and his brain, body and vital parameters have improved.

NEET-UG applications surge for 9th year in a row, record 24L for 2024-25 Up 3L From ’23-’24, Highest Jump In 7 Yrs

NEET-UG applications surge for 9th year in a row, record 24L for 2024-25 Up 3L From ’23-’24, Highest Jump In 7 Yrs

 Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com 

New Delhi : The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) has bettered its record for the ninth straight year with 23.8 lakh registrations for the 2024-25 academic year for admissions to medical/dental and allied health programmes. The addition of a little over 6,000 seats in govt colleges for 2024-25 academic year, however, has made the competition marginally easier with 42.2 aspirants per seat, one of the lowest in the past eight years.

 The entrance test saw an increase of 2.9 lakh registrations from its 2023-24 count, recording the highest jump in the past seven years. From 2017, when it breached the 10 lakh mark, the increase till now has been 12.4 lakh. NEET-UG is by far the biggest entrance exam in India, as it leaves behind CUET-UG 2023 (application under way for 2024) by over five lakh. NEET-UG registration’s first big jump was in 2017 (11.3 lakh) when it crossed the 10 lakh mark from eight lakh in 2016. Thereafter, barring the two Covid years (2020 and 2021), the increase in applications has been more than 11% every year. Till 2023, the increase in number of seats in govt col leges has not been proportional to the rise in number of applicants. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of aspirants rose by 16 percentage points as against 2.9 percentage point rise in seats. 

In 2023, the increase in seats was 11 percentage points, marginally lower that the increase in number of aspirants (11.5). After a decade, in 2024 the increase percentage of seats (17) has been higher than that of candidates (14.1), thereby making it the year of best seat-to-candidate ratio (1:42.2) in nine years (barring the 2021 Covid year). The number of seats in govt colleges in 2024 is 56,385 across 706 colleges (up from 322 in 2023, the biggest increase in the last 15 years), up from 48,212 in 2023 and 43,435 in 2022. The biggest increase in seats was in 2021 when 8,329 seats were added to the 2020 tally of 33,893. 

For over a decade now, females have outnumbered males in this medical entrance test. This year is no different with the highest-ever (57.2%) female participation. In 2023, it was 56.7% and 53.5% in 2022 and 51% in 2019.

 UGC: Check list of debarred univs before enrolling A head of the 2024-25 academic session, University Grants Commission cautioned students seeking enrolment in programmes offered under Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and/or Online Learning (OL) mode on Wednesday. In a public notice the regulator stated that Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Maharashtra, Sri Venkateshwara University, Andhra Pradesh and Periyar University Tamil Nadu have been debarred from offering ODL/ online programmes. TNN