Air India stake sale will be 'very, very difficult' says Arvind Panagariya

June 3, 2017

New Delhi, Jun 3: Selling stake in Air India will be "very, very difficult" with its debt burden of Rs 52,000 crore and the government has to decide if there should be partial or full write-off of debt, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Friday.Panagariya

Loss-making Air India, surviving on taxpayers' money, is facing tough business conditions amid stiff competition.

Stressing that the government has to first decide whether the national airline should be privatised or not, Panagariya said various issues need to be discussed.

"Assuming that the decision is made to privatise (Air India), then the issue comes what is the universe of potential buyers... only the national buyers or will we allow foreign entities also to bid for it," he said at a press meet here.

Panagariya noted that another issue is if the government should retain some stake in it, however small, "because there is the issue that it (Air India) is a national carrier and therefore, we should maintain that".

About the airline's debt burden, the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman said the last number he heard was Rs 52,000 crore.

"That's a very large number... selling it (Air India) with the existing debt is going to be very very difficult even say, it is open to both domestic and foreign buyers".

"Something will need to be done on debt issue also. The question largely is whether the government of India writes off the entire debt or some part of it. All this needs to be discussed," he said.

NITI Aayog has given its recommendations on making Air India strong and viable and those are being looked into by the Civil Aviation Ministry.

"NITI Aayog has given its suggestion to the Civil Aviation Ministry... Civil Aviation Ministry has to explore all the possibilities as to how the privatisation of Air India can be done," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.

On Thursday, Jaitley and his Civil Aviation counterpart, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, discussed the future course for debt- ridden Air India and senior officials had indicated that a decision on privatisation would be taken within three months.

Air India has been in the red since the merger with Indian Airlines in 2007. However, it posted an operational profit of Rs 105 crore on account of low fuel prices and increased passenger numbers in 2015-16.

Staying afloat on little over Rs 30,000 crore bailout package extended by the previous UPA regime, Air India is in discussions with lenders on ways to restructure the loans.

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March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: Bodies of the four Nirbhaya convicts who were hanged on Friday morning at Tihar Jail have been sent to hospital for a post-mortem, following which it will be handed over to the families, according to an official.

After the hanging at 5:30 am today, the bodies were taken from Tihar Jail to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital for post mortem at around 8:20 am.

Tihar jail Director-General Sandeep Goel said that the bodies will be handed over to the families after the post mortem.

The families, however, will have to give a written undertaking that they will not make a public demonstration of the cremation or burial of the executed person.

The superintendent will also consult the District Magistrate and the Deputy Commissioner of Police for arrangements for the disposal of the body.

The post mortem comes in line with the Supreme Court's order in Shatrughan Chauhan's case in January 2014, which had mandated the same observing that there is a dearth of experienced hangman in the country.

"By making the performance of post mortem obligatory, the cause of the death of the convict can be found out, which will reveal whether the person died as a result of the dislocation of the cervical vertebrate or by strangulation which results on account of too long a drop," the apex court had said in its order.

"Our constitution permits the execution of death sentence only through the procedure established by law and this procedure must be just, fair and reasonable," the order added.

All four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case -- Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh -- were hanged till death at 5:30 am this morning.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the adults accused had allegedly committed suicide in the prison during the trial, while the juvenile was released from a correction home after a period of three years.

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News Network
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: As the counting of votes for the Delhi Assembly polls began, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday raised doubts on EVMs, alleging that no machine having a chip is tamper-proof.

He called upon the Election Commission and the Supreme Court to take a fresh look at the use of EVMs in the country.

"No machine (which) has a chip is tamper-proof. Also please do for a moment think, why no developed country uses EVM," Singh said in a tweet.

"Would CEC and Hon Supreme Court please have a fresh look on EVM voting in India? We are the largest democracy in the world, we can't allow some unscrupulous people to hack results and steal the mandate of 1.3 billion people.

"If they match the votes in the counting unit. Declare the result. If they don't match then count the ballots of all polling booths in the assembly. It would convince everyone and save time also as this has been the consistent argument of CEC in favour of EVM," the Congress leader said.

Polling for the 70-member Delhi Assembly polls was held on Saturday.

The Election Commission on Sunday announced that the final voter turnout was 62.59 per cent, five per cent less than 2015.

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January 7,2020

Jan 7: A Delhi Court today issued death warrant against four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. The hanging will take place on January 22 at 7 am.

During the hearing, the prosecution said there was no application pending before any court or the President right now by any of the convicts and the review petition of all the convicts was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the court had reserved order on issuing of death warrants against four death row convicts.

Today's order comes days after mother of the victim in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case moved the Supreme Court on opposing the plea filed by one of the four death-row convicts seeking review of its 2017 judgement awarding him death penalty.

The apex court had on July 9 last year dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts — Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24) — in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.

The 23-year-old girl was gangraped and murdered by six men on a moving bus on 16 December 2012. The main accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the trial. Another accused was a minor at the time of the commission of the crime and was sent to a reform facility and released after three years.

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