Miscellany
A day after seeking Parliament’s approval for supplementary grant for equity infusion in the loss-making Air India, the government on Wednesday inducted corporate bigwigs Kumar Mangalam Birla (in pic) and YC Deveshwar into the board of the national carrier.
The appointment of Birla, head of an over $44 billion conglomerate, and Deveshwar, chairman of FMCG giant ITC, is for three years, according to a Personnel Ministry order issued late in the evening.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, one of the premier technology institutes in the country, is now working on to develop futuristic battery-free implantable medical devices for treatment of brain, nerve, muscle or spinal cord disorders that are untreatable by using standard medical practices.
The 138-year-old Oberoi Grand Kolkata, the oldest property from the stable of EIH, is well set for a facelift with 50 brand new rooms and suites. But Prithviraj Singh (Biki) Oberoi, the 89-year-old scion of Oberoi family, has one regret.
“I had spent a substantial portion of my life in Kolkata. I feel sad when I come back. The pavements along the entire Chowringhee area, where the hotel is located, and also the hotel’s arcade are occupied by hawkers. I’ve written to the city mayor and that has been of no avail,” rued Oberoi sitting within the hotel premises.
In a couple of month’s time we will know how many H-1B visas have been granted to Indian tech workers this year, after President Trump started intensifying his tirade against immigrant visas. But for sure, this year the numbers are going to be much lower with incidents of indiscriminate rejections.
State-owned carrier Air India has sought Rs 2,121 crore ($309 million) of additional equity from the government for the fiscal year 2018-19 to make pending payments to its vendors, a source at the airline told Reuters on Monday.
Air India owes about Rs 1,800 crore to its vendors, including lessors and banks that have demanded payment from the beleaguered airline, after the government’s unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer for its 76 per cent stake.
With a view to resolve the stress in the power sector and revive such assets, the government has decided to set up a high level empowered committee, It will be headed by cabinet secretary with representatives from ministries of railways, finance, power, coal and the lenders having major exposure to the power sector.
Steve Jobs may have been a tech genius, but he clearly didn't care much for fashion.
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has followed in his footsteps, sporting a plain grey T-shirt every day for years — only to swap it for a simple black suit to testify before Congress and the European Parliament.
But Silicon Valley, whose billionaires have long stuck to basic, functional apparel, may finally be starting to get a taste for something more extravagant.
A household in the metro spends an average Rs 30,500 per year on just out-patient medical requirements, double to that of a tier I household.
The Indian liquor industry, mostly the premium segment, is marching towards maturity and style by adopting global practices in packaging, including a slow but steady readiness for cork stopping solutions.
Globally, most of the high-end liquor labels come with best quality corks, made of Cork Oaks grown in Portugal. India has dozens of quality liquor brands, but poor quality packaging, bottling and the use of plastic, guala caps and screw caps make them unappealing to the global consumers.
Facebook Inc plunged as much as 20 per cent on Thursday after months of scandal and criticism finally hit the company where it hurts: growth.
The social-media goliath’s financial performance had previously seemed immune to fierce critiques of its content policies, its failure to safeguard private data, and its changing rules for advertisers. But on Wednesday Facebook reported sales and user growth numbers for the second quarter that fell short of analysts’ projections, leaving investors reeling.
