Air India and Its Future

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Air India is India’s national flag carrier. Over the years it has lost its fervour and there has been plenty of reforms to make it work and bring it out of the losses it has incurred.  It is continuously facing financial crisis. For instance see the following figures:-

• As of March 2011, Air India has accumulated a debt of Rs. 42,570 crore (approximately $10 billion) and an operating loss of Rs. 22,000 crore, and is seeking Rs. 42,920 crore from the government [1].

• For the past three months (June, July, August, 2011), the carrier has been missing salary payments and interest payments and Moody’s Investor Service has warned that missing payments by Air India to creditors, such as the State Bank of India, will negatively affect the credit ratings of those banks [2][3].

• A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) blamed the decision to buy 111 new planes as one of the major causes of the debt troubles in Air India; in addition it blamed on the ill timed merger with Indian Airlines as well [4].

These facts prove that unfortunately none of the efforts to revive have fared well and it keeps on adding to its losses. Despite this, the government doesn’t seem to have lost faith and is not ready to give up. It is still trying to reform it. However, it should be kept in mind that reforming something that malfunctions without understanding why doesn’t it work can only make things worse.  There have been many efforts and we have tried different approaches and all the experiments have failed. Now, is the time to take definitive steps to remove the burden of a lame horse from the shoulders of the tax-paying citizens.

[Videos] Justice Bhagwati on the Supreme Court’s darkest hour – YouTube

Video and Content Courtesy:  RainmakerIndia

[Guest Post] Views on Terrorism by Padmaja

Trying to understand Terrorism, Padmaja tries to explore whether one can really go so far for the sake of just a belief and raises few questions on the world leadership. Read it.

One more terrorist attack & we are all forced to either think for the cause or the solution.The Attack on Delhi high court has set in the state of panic in the air once again.

In India we have the naxalites, the communist group which believes they are causing a revolution but we call them terrorists. Then there are the Tamil Tigers in Srilanka and the IRA group all of whom believe they are freedom fighters. And there are the religious terrorists who believe they are fighting for their religion.

I feel any man who is willing to die for what he believes in is a wonderful man. The problem is that there is a huge volume of anger and hatred behind it and so the end result is ugly. Otherwise a man who is willing to die for what he believes in has a wonderful quality. Isn’t it so? How many of us are really courageous to die for what we believe?

It’s just that this is happening with enormous anger and hatred against some body and that is the problem.

Cash-for-vote Scandal and Case of H G Mudgal, 1951 – Waiting for Parliament to take action!!

Many of my friends might not know about the case of H G Mudgal. So, let us first focus on it. This case exemplifies the serious concern shown by the Parliament of India in the year 1951 about the misconduct of a member. The Constitution of India came into force in 1950. Therefore, Parliament can be termed as in nascent stage of its development. Thus, this case becomes more important to note because it illustrates how the members of an institute should work.

Right to Property Debate

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In recent times, there have been multiple incidents where farmers were protesting against the Government as it took away the land from them without paying the adequate compensation and against the wishes of many farmers. The whole debate about Right to Property needs to be re-initiated under this background. The Right to Property, which was enshrined in the original Constitution of India, as Fundamental Right should be re-instated by voiding the changes made by 44^th Amendment Act of 1978 in this respect.