Govt mulls 74 pc FDI in small airlines
New Delhi: Civil aviation minister Praful Patel has said that the government is considering increasing the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit to 74 pc in air cargo, helicopters and sea-planes.

The current FDI limit in the airline sector is 49 pc though there was no proposal to allow 74 pc FDI in domestic airlines. The bar on foreign airlines investing in domestic airlines would also stay.

The proposed increase in FDI cap for air cargo, helicopter operations and sea-planes will come with a rider. This is that no foreign airline companies can have a direct or indirect a stake in domestic Indian carriers. Even foreign equity funds in which airline companies have a stake are barred from investing in Indian carriers.

He said the plan to raise FDI in airline sub-sectors is aimed at catalysing growth in these areas. While Indian aviation is growing at impressive double-digit levels, the growth has mainly been witnessed at high-density metro routes, through increase in numbers of scheduled airlines. However, non-metro routes, which can be profitably served by smaller airlines and helicopters, has not shown similar growth.

FDI in airports and airlines is considered important for government to achieve its long-term plan of creating an aviation grid across the country by developing 400 airports and airstrips. Already, 100 pc FDI is allowed in airports through the automatic route.
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Govt advises airlines to stop imposing traffic congestion surcharge
New Delhi: The government has advised airlines to stop imposing the "air congestion surcharge" of Rs150 they had been adding to the price of each ticket since December 1. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said he would soon convene a meeting of top executives of domestic carriers to discuss the matter.

Airlines are suffering severe operational losses, in addition to the substantial amounts of fuel their aircrafts waste when they are forced to hover in the air above airports because of the air traffic congestion below, many domestic carriers like Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Air Sahara had unilaterally decided to impose this 'surcharge' on all domestic flights.

From April to June this year, all the functioning airports in India together handled 22.52 million passengers, 16.61 million of them in the domestic sector, a whopping 38.1 per cent increase over the 16.3 million passengers carried during the same period of last year. Airlines have also finalised orders for more than 500 more aircraft that would increase the seat capacity of the domestic aviation industry by 78,000 seats, but which would also add considerably to the prevailing airport congestion once they start operating.
Patel said he can't mandate the airlines but has advised them.
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Two pc of global population owns 50 pc of wealth: study
New York: Two per cent of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth, a report by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) said. Six years ago in 2000 the richest one per cent of adults owned 40 per cent of global wealth,

Further 10 per cent of the richest adults accounted for 85 per cent of the total global assets. Against this, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely one per cent of global wealth. Average wealth amounted to 144,000 dollars per person in the USA in year 2000, and 181,000 dollars in Japan. Lower down among countries with wealth data are India with per capita assets of 1,100 dollars and Indonesia with 1,400 dollars per capita.

Almost all of the world's richest individuals live in North America, Europe, and rich Asia-Pacific countries.

Each of these groups of countries contribute about one third of the members of the world's wealthiest 10 per cent.

China occupies much of the middle third of the global wealth distribution, while India, Africa, and low-income Asian countries dominate the bottom third.
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India, Romania look to achieve $1bn bilateral trade by 2008
New Delhi: India and Romania are targeting to achieve $1 billion in bilateral trade in the next two years according to Vasile Sofineti, the Romanian Ambassador to India.

Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry-organised meeting with the Romanian economic delegation, Sofineti said that the target could be achieved through increased collaboration between the two countries. Indo-Romania bilateral trade grew to $450 million in 2005, an increase of 69 pc over the previous year.

VK Mathur Inapex chairman and managing director, said India- Romania trade, which stagnated during 1999- 2001, is again on the upswing said the two countries can collaborate in the areas of drugs and pharmaceuticals, iron ore, machinery and instruments, iron and steel and inorganic chemicals. The special economic zones recently set up in several Indian states provide internationally competitive business environment.

About 20 Indian companies including Ranbaxy, Viraj Group and Ashmita Constructions have already set up businesses in Romania.
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