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Indians are holidaying lavishly now, spending more on five-star hotels and booking business-class seats as the country emerges from the coronavirus pandemic that restricted travel for two years, according to the South Asian nation’s second-biggest online travel agency.

“People are living their lives and splurging on travel,” Prashant Pitti, a co-founder of EaseMyTrip, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “It’s a shift which is happening for good, for long-term.”

More and more Indians are taking to the skies as travel curbs ease and the country opens up international travel, with pent-demand driving travel needs for millions stuck at home. India, the world’s fastest-growing major aviation market before the pandemic, expects local traffic to exceed pre-pandemic levels of 415,000 daily fliers within a year. Indian airlines are also adding capacity to capture the revival in demand as international flights resumed from Sunday.

Bookings for business class seats on flights and five-star hotels have already doubled compared to pre-pandemic numbers as a percentage of total reservations, Pitti said. Indians are now planning holidays of 4.7 days on average, compared with 3.2 days before Covid, he said. Operated by Easy Trip Planners Ltd., EaseMyTrip offers online bookings for flights, trains, hotels, buses and cabs.

EaseMyTrip, which sold shares to the public last year, will continue to grow profitably, Pitti said. The company’s net income likely surpassed 9 billion rupees ($118 million) for the year ending March 31, jumping from 6.1 billion rupees ($80 million) previous year, he said.

While airfares have jumped “quite dramatically” in the last few weeks as carriers tried to offset a rise in oil prices, the increase will be short-lived, said Pitti.

“India is looking great, in lines to recover very rapidly from the onslaught which we all have been through in the last two years,” he said. “The pent-up demand won’t shorten for next couple of years.”

Also Read:-Banks never got back money from defaulters under UPA govt: Nirmala Sitharaman

Sitharaman also said in the Lok Sabha that actions have been taken, including registration of FIRs, against those who have cheated small savings depositors through various fraudulent activities.

She said the Reserve Bank of India is also monitoring activities of App based financial companies.

Responding to questions by DMK’s T R Baalu about the government’s action against loan defaulters and NPAs, the minister said “writing off” loans does not mean “complete waive off” and the banks are following every loan to recover the outstanding amount.

“Over Rs 10,000 crore, I am saying ‘over’ as I don’t want to disclose the actual figure, have been recovered by PSU banks from loan defaulters after taking over their assets.

Sitharaman’s remarks invited sharp reaction and protests from Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

The finance minister said the opposition party must listen to the “bitter truth” and alleged that the loans were given during the previous UPA regime due to political considerations.

Earlier, the minister said the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 (FRDI Bill) was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August, 2017 and thereafter was referred to the Joint Committee of Parliament for examination and report thereon. The main objective of the FRDI Bill was to create a specialised resolution mechanism for select financial sector entities.

The government had withdrawn the FRDI Bill in August, 2018 for further comprehensive examination and reconsideration of the subject.

The government has not taken a decision to bring a new law to provide for a legal framework for resolution of financial firms, she said.

Sitharaman said with a view to provide a greater measure of protection to depositors in banks, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) has raised the limit of insurance cover for depositors in insured banks from the level of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per depositor with effect from February 4, 2020 with the approval of the central government.

Also Read:Travel insurance to gain prominence in post-COVID world

The minister said the government has already notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019 on November 15, 2019 to provide a generic framework for insolvency and liquidation proceedings of systemically important Financial Service Providers (FSPs) other than banks.

Subsequently, she said, the government has also notified on November 18, 2019, that the insolvency resolution and liquidation proceedings of the Non-Banking Finance Companies (including housing finance companies) with asset size of Rs 500 crore or more shall be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC, 2016).

Accordingly, the framework to deal with the select Non-Banking Finance Companies is already in place under IBC, 2016, she said.

India’s tourism sector is counting on the upcoming May-June travel season to finally leave the pandemic blues behind, with people already starting to make their summer vacation plans.

Almost 84 percent of Indians plan to spend on leisure travel either domestically or internationally in the next four to six weeks, according to a survey by SurveyMonkey. About 35 percent of the respondents are considering travel overseas in the next few months and the remaining are looking to unwind at popular local destinations.

Airlines in India expect domestic traffic to recover to pre-pandemic levels from May – compared with the 85 percent mark hit so far – if another wave of Covid-19 infections does not hit the country. Hotels and the tourism sector are also eyeing a recovery after two years of disruptions.

According to Vipul Prakash, chief operating officer at MakeMyTrip, an online travel company, sentiment is rising every week and will hopefully surpass previously recorded numbers in the coming months.

Prakash said his company has already achieved 100 percent recovery in the flight segment compared to pre-Covid levels and leisure travel bookings will continue to lead the recovery as the summer holiday season approaches.

Pradeep Shetty, joint secretary of the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, said there has been a gradual uptick in hotel bookings since March, and May and June are expected to be even better on account of the holiday season.

Travel demand is likely to increase by 150 percent on-year in hubs such as New Delhi and Mumbai, according to a report by RateGain Travel Technologies.

Domestic Tourism

Holidaymakers domestically are eyeing popular hotspots Goa, Srinagar, Dehradun, Pondicherry, Mysore and Kochi for their planned vacations.

Search queries and bookings for May-June have so far risen about 200 percent and 40-70 percent, respectively, compared to January-March, according to data from MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com, Thomas Cook, EaseMyTrip, Ixigo and domestic airlines.

Also Read | Travel planner: Things and places to consider as regular international flights resume

“For the upcoming summer vacations, we are witnessing a 40 percent rise in bookings for Goa, Kashmir, Jaipur and Himachal. We are also witnessing a sharp growth in air ticket bookings to and from tier 2 and 3 cities,” said Nishant Pitti, co-founder of EaseMyTrip.

Rajeev Kale, president & country head, holidays, MICE, Visa at Thomas Cook (India), said his company had witnessed a three-fold surge in demand for the May-June compared to March-April.

Demand for travel to places of worship like Shirdi, Vrindavan, Ajmer and Bodh Gaya is also rising. Online travel agencies expect spiritual travel to rise 60-80 percent during the summer vacations.

Daniel D’Souza, president & country head - holidays, SOTC Travel, said travellers are also looking at experiences such as cruises, biking trips, wellness and yoga retreats, ayurveda treatments, vegetarian special food tours and safaris at leading national reserves.

“Based on customer interest, we have witnessed multi-generational families taking that much needed holiday, especially during festivals and extended weekends at eclectic accommodations like villa stays, tea/coffee plantations, and eco-lodges,” D’Souza said.

International tourism

Indian travellers are eyeing popular overseas tourism hotspots that are closer to home such as Dubai, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Maldives to unwind, data collected by tourism companies shows.

Major online travel agents and airlines say that search queries have risen 90-130 percent while bookings have increased by 20-30 percent compared to levels in March.

Search queries to Dubai, Thailand, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Singapore have doubled since the government announced earlier this month that international flights will be opened up from March 27.

“Current data patterns on the platform indicate that 96 percent of the searches are for the coming summer holiday season, with Dubai, Thailand, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, London, Paris and Amsterdam ranking high on the consideration list of international destinations,” MakeMyTrip’s Prakash said.

International tourism continued its recovery in January, with a much better performance compared to the weak start to 2021, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine adds pressure to economic uncertainties, coupled with many Covid-related travel restrictions still in place, it said on March 25.

VFS Global, the world’s largest outsourcing visa processing company, said applications for travel to Dubai, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore and the Maldives have risen almost 30 percent in the past month from February.

According to Yatra.com, international travel queries have risen 130 percent in March from levels in February, while overseas bookings have risen close to 30 percent.

“Our travel queries have even surpassed pre-Covid levels in March as Indians are looking to travel to international destinations again after two years,” an official from Yatra.com said.

EaseMyTrip said enquiries for destinations such as Dubai, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the US and Australia have seen a strong jump between May and June.

“International destinations such as Dubai and Sri Lanka have been witnessing a surge in demand, not just for longer vacations, but for short-haul weekend trips as well,” Pitti said.

Rise in luxury travel

Indian tourists are not only looking to vacation internationally but are also willing to spend more on travel with queries and bookings for premium hotels, private villas and eclectic stays rising significantly in the past month.

Our customers are displaying a clear preference for private villas with a personal chef and concierge services, villas with a backyard, pool with a deck and more for luxury stays and relaxation – with multi-generational family or groups of friends,” Kale said.

Data from Yatra.com shows that the average per person expenditure on booking a week-long holiday has risen by almost $200 (Rs 15,270), with customers booking luxury experiences like private accommodation, valet services and adventure experiences on their trips.

Booking patterns also indicate that travellers are choosing slow travel, leading to long stays when planning their first international trip after the pandemic.

Infosys was caught in a cross-fire over its operations in Russia, as UK finance minister, Rishi Sunak was questioned on his wife's stake in the company. Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus N R Narayana Murthy's daughter Akshata Murty holds less than 1 per cent stake in the company.

Meanwhile, in a statement to the media, Infosys denied that it has any business relationships with local Russian enterprises.

"Infosys has a small team of less than 100 employees based out of Russia, that services some of our global clients, locally. We do not have any active business relationships with local Russian enterprises," said the company statement.

When asked if operations were impacted by the European conflict, the company said, "At this point we do not foresee any impact on delivery or services for our clients from our Eastern European centres, and have activated necessary business continuity protocols."

The statement further stated that Infosys is focused on extending support to the community. The company has committed $1 million towards relief efforts for war victims from Ukraine.

During an interview with the Sky News, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's son-in-law said, "I am an elected politician and I am here to talk about what I am responsible for. My wife is not."

Click  Here:-How to Deal With Your Broker?

Infosys was caught in a cross-fire over its operations in Russia, as UK finance minister, Rishi Sunak was questioned on his wife's stake in the company. Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus N R Narayana Murthy's daughter Akshata Murty holds less than 1 per cent stake in the company.

Meanwhile, in a statement to the media, Infosys denied that it has any business relationships with local Russian enterprises.

"Infosys has a small team of less than 100 employees based out of Russia, that services some of our global clients, locally. We do not have any active business relationships with local Russian enterprises," said the company statement.

When asked if operations were impacted by the European conflict, the company said, "At this point we do not foresee any impact on delivery or services for our clients from our Eastern European centres, and have activated necessary business continuity protocols."

The statement further stated that Infosys is focused on extending support to the community. The company has committed $1 million towards relief efforts for war victims from Ukraine.

During an interview with the Sky News, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's son-in-law said, "I am an elected politician and I am here to talk about what I am responsible for. My wife is not."

Click  Here:-How to Deal With Your Broker?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed to ease the pricing formula used for determining the ‘open offer’ price in the case of public sector undertaking (PSU) disinvestments. The move will potentially benefit the acquirers and could give a fillip to the disinvestment activity.

Under the takeover norms, an acquirer has to launch the so-called open offer to buy a 26 per cent stake from the public on acquisition of a 25 per cent or more stake in a listed company. The rationale behind this is to provide an exit opportunity to shareholders in the event of a takeover or change in control.

The open offer price is determined by various parameters laid down by the market regulator which include the actual price paid by the acquirer to existing promoters. This price, however, has to be higher than the volume-weighted average price for the past 52 weeks or 26 weeks or 60 days before the decision to acquire the stake is announced in the public domain or when the acquisition is actually signed – earlier date of the two.

Sebi, in a discussion paper, has said the 60-day rule for discovering the open offer price could be dispensed with in the case of PSU disinvestment. The relaxation will also be given in the case of open offers that get triggered indirectly on account of PSU disinvestments.

Typically, shares of PSUs rally after the government announces plans to divest its stake in it. This makes it unattractive for the acquirer to carry out the acquisition as the Sebi formulae takes into account recent price spikes. The proposed relaxation could help tackle this problem, say experts.

“Given that in case of PSU disinvestment, acquirer shall be identified only after the shortlisting of bidders, which may be month(s) or year(s) late since the date when the information was first in public domain, the prospective acquirer shall be chasing a

moving open offer price as the market price tends to rise pursuant to announcement of the divestment and various stages thereafter and thus its liability for open offer obligations may constantly increase till the execution of agreement of the PSU with the acquirer,” Sebi said in the discussion paper.

The regulator said in the case of private transactions, the announcement is typically made after the execution of binding agreements. As a result, the traded price of the target company isn’t impacted much. However, in the case of PSU strategic disinvestment, information comes in public domain at the time of Cabinet approval and subsequent announcements are also made at different stages and thus the market price of the PSU concerned gets highly susceptible to such developments, Sebi said.

A final decision on easing the open offer formula will be taken by Sebi once it gathers public feedback on the issue.

In a bid to contain the rising edible oil prices, India is looking to sign long-term contracts with Mercosur countries to import crude sunflower oil, Business Standard reported on March 26. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted imports from Europe's second-largest nation, which has resulted in a sharp spike in edible oil prices.

India may need to slash the import duty on sunflower oil originating from Mercosur countries and relax testing requirements under the existing preferential tariff agreement (PTA) with the grouping, the report said citing sources privy to the development.

Mercosur, a Latin American trading bloc, is composed of sovereign member states: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. India had signed the PTA with Mercosur in 2004.

“We have had two-three rounds of discussions with Mercosur countries. We need to sign long-term contracts because in agriculture, you need to plan well ahead to meet demands. So far, Mercosur was targeting only China for sunflower oil exports since India has export restrictions. We have tariff quota restrictions as well as plant quarantine restrictions. We have to open the existing PTA with Mercosur and include the tariff reduction on sunflower oil under the trade deal,” a government official told Business Standard on condition of anonymity.

According to the report, India imports 60 per cent of its edible oil requirements, and sunflower oil constitutes around 14 per cent of such imports. In 2021, India imported 90 per cent of the $2.4 billion worth of crude sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia, and only $233 million worth of sunflower oil from Argentina.

Once again the western countries are at loggerheads with Russia. This time over Ukraine. Once again, India is placed in a tight spot–in having to choose between new opportunities and old allies.

In the fifties, when India had to take a position in the Cold War period, its political leaders managed to stay ‘non-aligned’ and help state-run businesses benefit from the US-Soviet Union stand-off. Competing business houses used their political connections on either side to gain an advantage over each other. Despite the hard circumstances, Indian political and business leaders scored big wins, according to Mircea Raianu.

This time, there are other factors muddying the waters.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, the historian of modern South Asia and author of Tata: The Global Corporation that Built Indian Capitalism, spoke about India’s history with non-alignment and why that political stand may not work as well this time.

India’s continuing economic and military links with Russia can be directly traced back to the first decade after independence. As the Cold War split the world into competing power blocs, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru adopted a posture of non-alignment alongside many other ex-colonial nations such as Egypt, Indonesia, and Ghana (but also European socialist countries like Yugoslavia that broke with Stalin). This was done for both pragmatic and ideological reasons, in order to benefit materially by attracting capital and expertise from both West and East (for example in the construction of state-owned steel plants), and due to Nehru’s orientation toward socialism in a democratic political context. Military aid from the Soviet Union eventually became more important, particularly after the 1971 war for Bangladeshi independence and growing US ties with Pakistan.

 What have been the benefits India has got from this relationship over the years, and what has it given in return?

 I’ll speak more about the economic aspects since I am not an expert on the military side. At first, the Indian state benefited considerably from Soviet aid for projects such as the steel plants at Bhilai and Bokaro. These were very successful in increasing steel output and technical training at low cost, while avoiding dependence on foreign exchange (in short supply in the late 1950s and early 60s). The technology was older but free of the patent protections insisted on by German and British private partners. Meanwhile, the US mainly directed aid toward agriculture rather than heavy industry. Seeking assistance from both sides (and in different sectors) created a vital space of maneuver for the Indian state to implement its desired industrial policy. In return, the Soviets obtained additional markets for export of grain and other commodities. As Oscar Sanchez-Sibony has pointed out in the excellent book Red Globalization, they were far from a dominant partner, merely using India to widen their participation in the global economy beyond the Iron Curtain. It was a win-win scenario but not for long.

 With the thawing of the Cold War, did Russia's interest in India weaken and therefore its investments in India reduce? 

 The shift to primarily military aid in the 1970s accompanied both détente (thawing) in the Cold War and stagnation in the Soviet economy. India, too, was undergoing a period of economic instability in the aftermath of the oil crisis of 1973. Under those conditions the relationship weakened. With limited liberalisation by Indira and Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, a more pronounced shift toward the US occurred (especially in the technology sector). But during this time India faced another balance of payments crisis (just as in the late 50s) and took advantage of oil purchases in rupees pegged to the ruble. The spike in oil prices due to the Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 together led to the well-known liberalising reforms under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh.

Also read: Share Market Closing Note - Sharetipsinfo

 Which are the old business houses that thrived thanks to India's friendship with the Soviet Union? 

 As I discuss in my book, Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism, Indian business houses were in conflict with each other and with the Nehruvian state after independence. American and Soviet connections were leveraged to fight those battles. Tata had long been associated with the US, from the early days of building the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) and the hydro-electric power plants in Western India. Chairman J.R.D. Tata was planning to expand production at TISCO with American help in the 1950s in order to counterbalance Nehru’s insistence on steel as a reserved sector for the state. When news of the Soviet offer for the plant at Bhilai broke, Tata feared the loss of an essential “open door” to the American steel industry. But President Einsenhower and his advisers were even more alarmed about the threat of Communism and pushed through a much-needed World Bank loan to fund TISCO’s expansion. Meanwhile, the Birlas and Lalbhais represented India in negotiations to purchase Soviet equipment for the oil and aluminium industries. This was in keeping with their calculated proximity to Nehru and the Congress. The benefits of trade with the Soviets went mostly to the Indian state, specifically to certain ministries like the Production Ministry (rather than Commerce and Industry). Without Cold War competition, India would not have had such a significant and long-lasting public sector.

How did the dissolution of the Soviet Union affect this bilateral relationship and trade?

 After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced a lost decade of economic decline (culminating in the financial crisis of 1998). India was comparatively on the rise and private business looked to the West. The relationship weakened further but did not break, remaining important in the military and energy sectors (both oil and nuclear).

What industries and big business houses are still dependent on this bilateral relationship?

 Very few private businesses in India today are oriented toward Russia. This is in keeping with historical precedent and is not likely to change.

 What challenges do you see to the Indian trade reducing its dependence on Russia?

India is in a precarious position, again not unlike the 1950s. Given the continuing dominance of the dollar as a global reserve currency, deepening supply chain integration (recall the signals to move manufacturing from China to India during the first year of the pandemic), and strategic partnerships to contain China (the Quad), it will be difficult to withstand Western pressure on sanctions. At the same time, breaking with Russia completely will put a dent in India’s military capabilities and freedom to assert its own foreign policy as an aspirational regional and global power.

In the Nehru and Indira Gandhi years, non-alignment made sense politically, economically, and ideologically (a dimension that is largely absent in a post-Cold War world). Today that is not so clear. One big unknown is the resilience of the Russian economy after sanctions, which will also test the prospects for self-reliance under duress. In the short term, Russia will have very little to offer for India’s broader developmental needs, which can only be achieved by continued participation in the US-centred global economic system. But in the long run, if Russia regains some degree of stability and influence, India may decide to keep that door open. Whatever happens, it will become necessary for Indian and other Global South leaders to begin articulating a more coherent vision for where they stand and what they stand for – as Nehru once did.

Tatas-backed satellite services firm Nelco's share price locked in five percent upper circuit on March 24 after the company announced a cooperation agreement with Omnispace to enable and distribute 5G non-terrestrial network direct-to-device satellite services.

The pact will expand 5G throughout India and South Asia and focus on 5G direct-to-device communications using Omnispace’s global NGSO satellite network across various market segments, Nelco said in its press release

At 14:36 hrs NELCO was quoting at Rs 678.60, up Rs 32.30 or 5 percent on the BSE.

The share touched a 52-week high of Rs 968.55 and a 52-week low of Rs 178.85 on 19 October 2021 and 19 April 2021 respectively.

Currently, it is trading 29.94 percent below its 52-week high and 279.42 percent above its 52-week low.

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