While India has assured nearly 5,000 visas for Pakistanis for the World Cup matches to be held in the country subject to ticket availability, not even 100 have actually been availed of so far. Further, it is learnt that of the visas availed of by Pakistanis so far, over 50 have gone to Pakistani Cricket Board officials while a mere 30 or so have actually gone to spectators. While it is expected that visa applications may rise ahead of the much-anticipated India-Pakistan clash slated to be held in Mohali next week, the fast depleting tickets could cause further problems for fans.

Fright Path

The turbulence in Air India continues, and the problems seem to start from the top. In a couple of months, Arvind Jadhav will complete two years as its CMD but he has still not been able to give the airline a settled look, let alone put it on a revival path. While public money amounting to thousands of crores is being pumped into the bleeding airline, Jadhav is still caught up in his personal battles with peers and boardroom politics — a fact that has even annoyed the Prime Minister’s Office which received complaints from reputed independent directors, who threatened to resign, and of whom one left in disgust. This feeling seems to run through the airline’s hierarchy. Since taking over, 16 officials of the rank of executive director and general managers have quit or gone on long leave. In one case, he had the investigative agencies raid a senior lady official who has since gone into severe depression. The agencies found nothing in the complaint and referred it back to the airline as an internal matter. Of the six functional directors appointed by the Cabinet, the one in charge of cargo has opted for voluntary retirement after her wings were clipped while another has ended his term but is not being allowed to even continue as a regular employee despite ACC orders. His office has been sealed and a paper battle is on. Jadhav then handed over personnel issues to an executive director in charge of materials management while the director responsible for HR has been put out of the loop even as strikes remain a regular feature. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi’s lack of familiarity with these internal issues has meant that AI continues to be embroiled in never-ending ego battles and power struggles. As for performance, the slight jump in profit is being attributed to the overall improvement of the sector even though the figures are nowhere near the profit margins of other airlines. Worryingly, over 40 routes have fallen off Air India’s route map, making it a smaller airline each passing day.
Not many traditional politicians would choose to describe themselves as conservative. But the Finance Minister while presenting the Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha did concede that he is truly ‘conservative’. Mukherjee was incidentally also labeled as conservative by the Opposition while the Bill was being presented, a reference to his reluctance to announce “unimaginative” GDP growth figures for the current fiscal year.

Out of trouble?

The Army’s tough stance on the Adarsh Housing Society case may have got diluted somewhat with the court of inquiry against the only serving officer named in the scandal, Maj Gen RK Hooda, failing to hold him guilty. While the grounds of the inquiry was to establish whether the officer had misled his superiors that the land did not belong to the Army, the inquiry could not find him culpable after defence estates officials testified that there was no record of the land in its registers. The Army, however, charged the officer for not disclosing that he had taken a Rs 30 lakh loan from a bank to pay for the flat he acquired in the building. In what is seen as a harsh decision, the Army has given the officer a written censure which would curtail his promotion to the rank of Lt Gen. Hooda has the option of approaching the Armed Forces Tribunal but must be a relieved man as he has not been charged on the most serious allegations of misleading the Army on the status of the land.
The uproar in Parliament over black deeds and black money took some unexpected diversions. One Rajya Sabha Congress MP from Goa took a swipe at the BJP during his address, alleging that the party was so keen to track the source of black money because one of their former leaders — who is no more — had stashed large sum of money at a foreign bank. The comments obviously led to an uproar in the House. However, it didn’t last long simply because BJP attendance in the House was rather thin at that point.

New environment

The Environment Ministry’s new headquarters is at least two years away from completion, but it has started the process by officially launching a website on the project. The website for ‘Indira Paryavaran Bhawan’ was formally launched last week, though it has been operating for quite some time now. Apart from the general details of the upcoming building, the site also gives a detailed schedule of the construction work. Incidentally, the building has narrowly escaped the need to get an environmental impact assessment done. Its super area is 19,088 m while construction work involving areas more than 20,000 sq m require a mandatory environmental assessment.

Resource :http://www.indianexpress.com/news/world-cup-frenzy/768199/1 to  http://www.indianexpress.com/news/world-cup-frenzy/768199/3