NEW DELHI: The US financial market crisis has come as big blow to Indian airlines that were hoping for a reversal of fortunes with increased footfalls in coming peak travel season. Carriers now fear an erosion of traffic to and from the west as troubled investment bankers have traditionally been big ticket spenders on travel front. And since all Indian carriers are grossly undercapitalised, raising funds has become tougher as cost of capital is very high while capacity for taking risks is low.
The troubled US giant, AIG, has a 10% stake in the consortia that has insured Air India. "Our Indian insurance company, New India, has assured there's no problem and we have still an A rating," said an AI official. Clearly, the biggest worry is on travel and funding front. Apart from business travel, NRIs who used to get fat pay cheques from the troubled US giants are also feared to cut down on personal travel in the coming wedding season.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
HRCP and People’s forum demand ease of Pak-India travel
KARACHI: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Secretary General IA Rehman and Pak-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) Pakistan Secretary General Anis Haroon have jointly urged the governments of Pakistan and India to change their policies toward each other, especially their visa issuance policies so that people from both sides can visit each other to ensure long-lasting peace in the region.
“We recommend dialogue between India and Pakistan to promote the peace process in the region but because of the Kashmir issue, these dialogues have been put on ice. For the peace process to take place at the people’s level, both countries must allow the citizens of the other country to visit freely, for which we recommend that visa requirements be lifted, if not then the visa process must be easy, so that people are encouraged to visit each other,” said Rehman.
Addressing a joint press conference at the HRCP office in Karachi, Rehman demanded that both governments issue visas to citizens so they can attend the Lahore convention planned in November by the PIPFPD.
“We recommend dialogue between India and Pakistan to promote the peace process in the region but because of the Kashmir issue, these dialogues have been put on ice. For the peace process to take place at the people’s level, both countries must allow the citizens of the other country to visit freely, for which we recommend that visa requirements be lifted, if not then the visa process must be easy, so that people are encouraged to visit each other,” said Rehman.
Addressing a joint press conference at the HRCP office in Karachi, Rehman demanded that both governments issue visas to citizens so they can attend the Lahore convention planned in November by the PIPFPD.
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