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New Delhi: Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd on Friday said it had placed an order to purchase 100 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, valued at $11 billion, from Boeing Co., in a deal that would help the airline expand operations and result in fuel-cost savings. “This order is a great step for creating a strong foundation for SpiceJet,” airline chairman Ajay Singh said on Friday. Besides the 100 aircraft, SpiceJet has an option to buy 50 more 737 Max planes that it can convert into a firm order later. Taken with a previous order for 55 aircraft, SpiceJet’s total order could rise to 205 planes. Of these, 155 will be delivered to the airline between 2018 and 2024. More aeroplanes would be leased this year to expand SpiceJet’s presence in the country, Singh said, adding that the November-December quarter had been profitable for the airline in spite of the demonetization shock. The airline expects the fuel-efficient Max aircraft to help it save about 20% in fuel costs. SpiceJet has...

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against unknown officials of Air India, German firm SAP AG and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) in connection with alleged irregularities in procurement of software worth Rs225 crore by the national carrier in 2011. The agency has registered the case on the recommendation of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) which found prima facie procedural irregularities in the procurement of the software, according to people in the investigation agency in know of the development. Emails sent by PTI to SAP and IBM seeking their reactions remained unanswered. After considering the reports of Air India’s chief vigilance officer, the CVC in a communication to CBI said it was of the view that there were “serious procedural and other irregularities” in the procurement as well as amount paid and extent of services rendered. The CVC in the note said it has come to conclusion that Air India hasn...

Bengaluru: Early signs of a turnaround at Infosys Ltd under its first non-founder CEO Vishal Sikka seem to be fading, as the company on Friday cut its full-year revenue forecast for the third time this financial year after posting a 1.4% sequential drop in dollar revenue in the December quarter. Infosys’s latest revision of its revenue outlook means the management has shaved $588 million off the $1.31 billion in new business it had expected to do this year in April, when it had guided for at-best growth of 13.8%. Bengaluru-based Infosys was hit by an unexpected loss of business from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc., estimated to be about $60-70 million. Negative cross-currency movements also hurt revenue. ALSO READ | Infosys results provide little reason for cheer But what is disconcerting analysts and shareholders is that 30 months after Sikka took over the CEO’s role in August 2014, Infosys has struggled to deliver consistent earnings and failed to improve upon its perfo...

Bengaluru: Early signs of a turnaround at Infosys Ltd under its first non-founder CEO Vishal Sikka seem to be fading, as the company on Friday cut its full-year revenue forecast for the third time this financial year after posting a 1.4% sequential drop in dollar revenue in the December quarter. Infosys’s latest revision of its revenue outlook means the management has shaved $588 million off the $1.31 billion in new business it had expected to do this year in April, when it had guided for at-best growth of 13.8%. Bengaluru-based Infosys was hit by an unexpected loss of business from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc., estimated to be about $60-70 million. Negative cross-currency movements also hurt revenue. ALSO READ | Infosys results provide little reason for cheer But what is disconcerting analysts and shareholders is that 30 months after Sikka took over the CEO’s role in August 2014, Infosys has struggled to deliver consistent earnings and failed to improve upon its perfo...

Late last October, Sandeep Singhal, a co-founder at Mumbai-based venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners, unwittingly pronounced e-commerce company Flipkart’s epitaph. At the close of a panel discussion in Bengaluru, Singhal remarked, in jest: “Effectively what we (venture capital investors) did is collectively spend $2-3 billion on educating the Indian consumer on how to use Amazon…” This week, the Flipkart that started up a decade ago in a two-bedroom apartment in Bengaluru and became the flag-bearer of the current generation of homegrown Internet start-ups, died. A quick recap of what happened earlier this week. On Tuesday, Tiger Global Management, the secretive New York-based hedge fund that has pumped a reported $1 billion into Flipkart over the years and owns 30-33% of the company, formally took over the reins at India’s most celebrated Internet start-up. Co-founder Binny Bansal has been kicked upstairs to group chief executive officer barely a ye...

New Delhi: Asserting that equal opportunity brings equal responsibility, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Friday said it’s up to women to decide if they are willing to join men in frontline combat role without separate and additional facilities. He mentioned that when out on tanks, the men sleep under the tank during the night with no separate facility. Noting that women are present in combat arms of the army except on the the frontlines, Gen Rawat reminded that there are no toilet facilities when they go out on patrol. “You have to see society as whole. I have said that if we induct women into combat role, they will have to share equal responsibility like their male counterparts because equal opportunity must come with equal responsibility. Which means that they will have to perform exactly the same task,” he said addressing his first annual conference in New Delhi after taking over as Chief of Army Staff on 31 December. Giving the example of soldiers in tanks, he said ...

Mumbai: A Reserve Bank of India employees union has written to Governor Urjit Patel objecting to a finance ministry move to send a joint secretary to coordinate cash operations at the central bank. Bloomberg Quint first reported this on Friday night. According to a copy of the letter posted on its web site, the United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees has called this move “unfortunate” and that it “impinged on RBI autonomy and its statutory as well as operational jurisdiction”, in a strongly worded letter to the governor. The letter also highlights that RBI Act 1934 empowers the central bank to regulate the issue of bank notes. “Right from 1935, for more than eight decades, RBI has been managing the currency system of the country seamlessly and fulfilling its statuary responsibility,” the letter said. “RBI has developed technologically perfected, expanded the system with more than 4000 currency chests and about the same number of coi...