Recently in India Category

The global prognosis for the airline industry is grim. The International Air Transport Association has forecast a $5.6 billion global net loss for 2010, coming right after a forecasted $11 billion loss in 2009.

Growing up in India, one of the highlights of my summer vacations was the annual trip from the capital New Delhi to my grandparents' home in Kerala located at the southernmost tip of the peninsula.

The family home, which is more than 300 years old, was seen by my sisters and cousins as the ultimate holiday destination with its many rooms, corridors, cellars and attic. What we didn't realize then was that it was also the ultimate in environmentally friendly construction, energy efficiency, self-sustainability and promoting recycling habits.

The Indian airline industry received yet another blow September 8, when about 360 Jet Airways pilots went on an illegal strike in Mumbai to protest the dismissal of two union employees in August.

It might be ok for the Indian government to bail out loss-ridden national carrier Air India, but it is preposterous that private airlines in which the government has no stake should scream "me too."

India's airline industry has totted up losses of about $2 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2009 of which Air India accounts for more than half. Of course, private airlines account for the rest of the losses.

Dear Mr. Anil Ambani,

It's time for a reality check. Do you sincerely believe that your company Reliance Natural Resources Limited is entitled to natural gas at heavily subsidized rates from your estranged brother Mukesh Ambani's D6 block?

You want to pay $2.34/MMBtu for supplies from the multi-billion-dollar deepwater project when all its other customers are forking out a wellhead price of $4.21. And these are customers in the power and fertilizer sectors who depend on government help because their own product prices are capped. These are players forced to operate their plants at partial capacity because they cannot afford to buy feedstock at market prices. And the D6 gas is costing them above $6/MMBtu at the customer gate.

India is preparing to bite the bullet on domestic oil pricing reforms after a year that saw its fuel subsidy bill rocket to more than $20 billion. The government needs to get its act together quickly, because the window of opportunity might be small.

Benchmark crude prices, which spiked from a low of $30s/barrel in February to more than $73/b at the end of June, have since slipped back to around $60/b, but could start spiraling up again at the first signs of a global economic recovery.

Careful now, that other Asian giant -- India has begun to stir languorously from its slumber. And when it is fully awakened, the world will be faced with another mammoth energy guzzler, hot on the heels of the US and China.