PM launches scheme to provide free LPG connections to poor

New Delhi, Jun 2: Manu Sharma, a convict in the 1999 Jessica Lal murder case, was released from Tihar Jail yesterday on the grounds of good behaviour after serving more than 16 years in prison, jail officials said on Tuesday.

Sharma had received the approval of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for his release after a recommendation of the Sentence Review Board for the same.

Advocate Amit Sahni, while speaking to ANI, had said that Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had approved the name of Siddharth Vashishth also known as Manu Sharma for release from Tihar Jail.

He said that Sharma's name was approved in a sentence review board meeting held on May 11. Earlier, Delhi High Court had also asked the SRB to consider his name for release.

Sharma, the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma, was convicted for shooting and murdering Jessica Lal, when she refused to serve him liquor at Tamarind Court restaurant at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi's Mehrauli on April 29, 1999.

Vashishth, 45-years-old, was serving a life term in connection with a case registered under Section 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the offense or giving false information to screen offender) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to officials, the convict has undergone imprisonment for 16 years, 11 months and 24 days in actual, and 23 years 4 months and 22 days with remission. He has availed parole 12 times and furlough 24 times.

Earlier, Manu's wife -- Preity Sharma -- had approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) claiming that her husband had been illegally detained for more than the prescribed period of incarceration (20 years with remission) as per the prevalent policy of the state.

New Delhi, Jan 1: In the backdrop of huge losses borne by airlines, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said the government is concerned that more airlines will shut down if predatory pricing continues. "Some predatory pricing is taking place" in airfares, the minister told reporters on Tuesday. Mr Puri however ruled out any plan by the government to regulate airfares. The remarks come amid high competition in the country's aviation sector, struggling against high fuel prices and other operating costs.

"The interesting thing that we have observed is that on Delhi-Mumbai route 20 years ago, the average fare was Rs 5,100. Today, the average fare is Rs 4,600. Some predatory pricing is taking place. It means people are selling tickets below their cost," he said.

"One of our concerns is that if there is predatory pricing, then the airlines will stop functioning. This is not Air India's problem only. Jet Airways got shut down. Before that, it was Kingfisher airline," he said.

IndiGo and SpiceJet - two of the country's biggest airlines - reported losses of Rs 1,062 crore and Rs 463 crore respectively in the second quarter of 2019-20. Other airlines have also reported losses in the quarter that ended on September 30, 2019.

Asked if predatory pricing is the reason for the ill health of the airlines, the minister said, "No, there are many reasons... Predatory pricing is one of the factors. But the profitability of an airline is dependent on (a) number of things."

Asked if the trend of predatory pricing has come down after regular discussion with the airlines, he said, "Yes, absolutely."

"It is (a) constant battle. An ideal situation from an airline's point of view is that they grow and they are also able to charge more fares. What fares they charge is their business. Our advice to them is to charge realistic fares," he added. "It should not be too high. And it is not in your business interests if you are imposing predatory fares."

The minister also said that the government is not planning to regulate fares. "No regulation. It has to be done within deregulation system.... If I put a cap on fare, the airline will start charging that cap only... that cap will become the normal fare... So, within a deregulated structure, we have to bring about an equilibrium," the minister said.

"Government, periodically, at my level or at secretary''s level, we sit down with the main aircraft operators and tell them it is in your interest not to allow such practices which undermine the civil aviation sector."

Feb 28: The best economic tonic for the coronavirus shock is to contain its spread and worry about stimulus later, said Raghuram Rajan, former head of the Reserve Bank of India.

There’s little central banks can do, and while more government spending would help, the priority should be on convincing companies and households that the virus is under control, he said.

“People want to have a sense that there is a limit to the spread of this virus perhaps because of containment measures or because there is hope that some kind of viral solution can be found,” Rajan told Bloomberg Television’s Haidi Stroud Watts and Shery Ahn.

“At this point I would say the best thing that governments can do is to really fight the epidemic rather than worry about stimulus measures that comes later,” said Rajan, who is currently a professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business.

The spread of coronavirus is pushing the world economy toward its worst performance since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Bank of America Corp. economists warned clients Thursday that they now expect 2.8% global growth this year, the weakest since 2009.

“We have moved from extreme confidence in markets to extreme panic, all in the space of one week,” said Rajan, who previously was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The virus outbreak will force companies to rethink supply chains and overseas production facilities, he said.

“I think we will see a lot of rethinking on this, coming on the back of the trade disruption, now we have this,” Rajan said. “Globalization in production is going to be hit quite badly.”