New Delhi: In the nearly two weeks since the Air India flight to London crashed in Ahmedabad, it has been bad news all around for the airline, which is under “immense pressure,” writes Veena Venugopal in a Financial Times newsletter.
Additional maintenance checks and safety inspections for Boeing-787s, the flare-up of the conflict in the Middle East, and the reduction of the Air India fleet have resulted in reluctant and “jittery” customers, says the India Business Briefing newsletter.
“Even the condolence message from chief executive Campbell Wilson closely resembled the one posted by his counterpart at American Airlines after a deadly crash in January, drawing accusations of plagiarism. Air India chair N Chandrasekaran has said the company would look into the claims,” the FT says. “This may seem minor, but it speaks of a generally slipshod approach that Air India appears to have had.”
For the first time in 5 years, a pilgrimage from India to China is taking place, Joshua Yang reports for The Washington Post.
“Beijing and New Delhi both have touted the restoration of the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage as one of the chief diplomatic breakthroughs to emerge from the rapprochement,” the article says.
Quoting a social media post by Yu Jing, the spokeswoman of the Chinese Embassy in Delhi the report adds, “China hopes the pilgrims will not only be ‘spiritually enriched but also enjoy hospitality of Chinese people’.”
Come summer, India’s hill stations are inundated with tourists, Sapna Gopal reports for The Guardian.
“Today, the oven-like heat in India’s cities has led to a big increase in visitors to the country’s popular hill stations, encouraging people to explore lesser-known, more remote villages such as Landour,” says the report.
“Now, this once tranquil haven, where tourists could delight in birdsong and the scent of warm cakes coming from the teahouses, is now filled with the sounds of honking horns and the reek of exhaust fumes.”
However, the hill stations that offer an escape from the heatwaves on the plains are themselves grappling with rising temperatures, with citizens rushing to purchase fans and ACs.
Bloomberg reports on a survey that has found that 1 in 4 Indians use a mobile phone to consume content, leaving the television behind, a “telling sign for firms from Netflix inc. to Starlink inc,” that are seeking to take advantage of the Indian market.
“This trend will help finetune marketing strategies of global media giants, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram, which are seeking more subscribers in the nation with more than 1.4 billion consumers,” reports Satviki Sanjay.
The BBC’s Cherylann Mohan writes an obituary for the mighty Arrowhead, a tigress at Ranthambore who passed away last week.
“Though graceful and fierce, Arrowhead had a difficult life, Mr Rai says. She was chased out of her territory by her own daughter, Riddhi, and had to mate multiple times in order to find a place she could call home,” the article notes.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)