Aerospace Diary

AIN AIR TRANSPORT PERSPECTIVE  »  MARCH 11, 2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS Air India, which is among the early operators of the Boeing 787, is set to receive a further capital injection of almost $1 billion from its government shareholder, but it is about the only Indian carrier with any grounds for optimism from the country’s new budget. (Photo: Boeing) March 11, 2013, 1:20 PM The Indian government’s new budget, released on February 28, brought little relief for the country’s  ailing air transport sector , although the industry awaits a possible announcement of some reduction in high aviation fuel taxes. In particular, the budget documents made no mention of hoped-for fiscal support for India’s emerging regional airline industry. High fuel prices and other rising operating costs combined with declining passenger traffic have resulted in mounting losses for Indian carriers and represented a severe constraint to the growth ...

By   Derek Scissors, Ph.D.      The Heritage Foundation Thursday was a really bad day for the Indian economy. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the October–December quarter came in at 4.5 percent, continuing to weaken. Worse, the central government budget for the next fiscal year leaves India on the same, failing course it’s been on of  undisciplined spending  and unrealistic expectations.   First, GDP. GDP is a measurement of economic activity, not economic prosperity, and it is badly understood and used in describing performance. It is certainly possible for India to report 4.5 percent GDP growth in a healthy economy, even if this is a far cry from the pre-crisis pace.   However, the Indian economy is not healthy.  Consumer inflation  remains above 10 percent, where it has been for years. More attention is paid to the wholesale price index, but it is consumer inflation that bears more directly on buying power. T...