Category: BUSINESS

New Delhi: Passengers can now cancel or change air tickets without paying additional charge within 48 hours of making the bookings subject to certain conditions, with aviation watchdog DGCA revising the ticket refund norms for airlines.

The option would not be available for domestic flight bookings where the departure date is less than 7 days and in the case of international bookings, the departure date should be not less than 15 days.

Coming out with the amended norms that are more passenger-friendly, DGCA also said that airlines should not levy any additional charge for correction in the name of the same person when the error is pointed out by the passenger within 24 hours of making the booking, when the ticket is booked directly through the airline’s website.

“In case of purchase of ticket through travel agent/portal, onus of refund shall lie with the airlines as agents are their appointed representatives. The airlines shall ensure that the refund process is completed within 14 working days,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

Besides, there are changes with respect to norms for ticket cancellations due to a medical emergency faced by the passenger.

The amendments to the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) for ‘Refund of Airline Tickets to Passengers of Public Transport Undertakings’ comes against the backdrop of the rising passenger complaints about not receiving refunds on time.

The ticket refund issue also got highlighted during the IndiGo flight disruptions in December 2025 and at that time, the civil aviation ministry had directed the airline to complete the refunds within a specified timeline.

The revised CAR was issued on February 24.

Now, the airlines have been asked to provide ‘Look-in option’ for a period of 48 hours to passengers after booking tickets.

“During this period a passenger can cancel or amend the ticket without any additional charges, except for the normal prevailing fare for the revised flight for which the ticket is sought to be amended.

“This facility shall not be available for a flight whose departure is less than 7 days for domestic flight and 15 days for international flight from booking date when ticket is booked directly through airline website,” the regulator said.

Beyond 48 hours of initial booking time, this option would not be available and the passenger would have to pay the relevant cancellation fees for amendment.

In a significant move, the watchdog said that airlines should not levy any additional charge for correction in name of the same person when the error is pointed out by the passenger within 24 hours of making the booking, when ticket is booked directly through airline website.

According to DGCA, in the event of ticket cancellations due to a medical emergency, where the passenger or a family member listed on the same PNR gets admitted/hospitalised during the travel period, airlines may provide either a refund or a credit shell.

“For all other situations, refunds will be issued once an opinion on the passenger’s fitness to travel certificate is received from an airline’s Aerospace Medicine specialist/ DGCA empanelled Aerospace Medicine specialist,” it said.

In December 2025, scheduled airlines received a total of 29,212 passenger-related complaints and 7.5 per cent of them were related to refunds. During that month, domestic carriers carried over 1.43 crore passengers, as per DGCA data.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing civil aviation markets and domestic airlines carried over 16.69 crore passengers in 2025.

New Delhi: The government has mandated the sale of petrol with up to 20 per cent ethanol and a minimum Research Octane Number (RON) of 95 across all states and Union Territories from April 1, 2026.

The oil ministry in a February 17 notification, said, “the central government hereby directs that oil companies shall sell ethanol-blended motor spirit (petrol) with percentage of ethanol up to 20 per cent as per the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications and having minimum Research Octane Number (RON) of 95, in states and the Union Territories”.

The central government can allow exceptions in special situations, for specific regions and for a limited time.

Ethanol is made from sugarcane, maize, or grain. It is renewable, domestically produced and has cleaner burning than pure petrol.

The government has mandated ethanol blending in petrol to help cut oil imports as also reduce emissions. Such a mandate also supports farmers as it boosts demand for sugarcane, maize and agricultural surplus.

Most vehicles manufactured in India from 2023-2025 onward are designed to run on E20 and no major issues are expected, industry officials said.

Older vehicles may however see a slight drop in mileage (3-7 per cent). Also rubber/plastic component may wear.

The insistance on minimum RON 95 is to prevent engine damage.

RON, or Research Octane Number, is a measure of a fuel’s resistance to engine knocking (pre-ignition). Knocking happens when fuel burns unevenly inside the engine, causing pinging sound, loss of power and possible engine damage over time.

The higher the RON, the more resistant the fuel is to knocking.

In simple terms, octane is like a fuel’s ‘self-control under pressure’ – higher RON means fuel stays stable under high compression.

Ethanol naturally has high octane value (around 108 RON). Blending 20 per cent ethanol in petrol, increases knock resistance.

Encouraged by India achieving 10 per cent ethanol doping in petrol in June 2022 – five months ahead of the target date – the government advanced 20 per cent blending to 2025-26 from 2030. Most pumps in the country now sell E20 or petrol blended with 20 per cent ethanol.

According to the oil ministry, since 2014-15 India has saved more than Rs 1.40 lakh crore in foreign exchange through petrol substitution.

Hyderabad: Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has been named one of the best airports in the world for the arrivals experience at the 2025 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Customer Experience Awards.

Under the “Best Airports at Arrivals Globally” category, the honour, presented by the Airports Council International (ACI) World, follows a comprehensive survey where passengers rated their experience at the airport in Shamshabad specifically upon arrival.

In 2025, nearly 7.07 lakh passengers worldwide participated in the ASQ survey programme. The initiative is widely regarded as one of the most credible benchmarks for airport service standards as it collects feedback from travellers while they are physically present at the airport, making it harder to game than most industry recognitions.

According to airport officials, the recognition reflects the facility’s performance across several parameters, including arrival formalities, cleanliness, ambience, staff service and overall ease of movement through the terminal. Pradeep Panicker, chief executive officer (CEO) of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, said the award was significant because it was based directly on passenger feedback.

“Being recognised as one of the world’s best airports at arrivals is deeply rewarding. We believe the arrival experience sets the tone for the entire journey,” Panicker said.

Justin Erbacci, Director General of ACI World, noted that the distinction acknowledges the airport’s commitment to delivering high standards. 

The ASQ programme covers more than half of the world’s air passengers, making it a difficult standard to meet. The Hyderabad airport was among a select group of global airports to be chosen in the arrivals category for 2025.

Currently, RGIA connects Hyderabad to over 100 domestic and international destinations, including major hubs in the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia.

New York: Facebook owner Meta Platforms will buy artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in a deal that will also give it the opportunity to buy up to a 10 per cent stake of the chip company.

Meta will buy AMD’s latest chips, the MI450, to help power data centres. The 6-gigawatt agreement will see shipments supporting the first gigawatt deployment set to start during the second half of this year. The agreement could potentially be worth more than USD 100 billion.

Shares of AMD jumped more than 9 per cent before the market opened on Tuesday, February 24.

The companies said that AMD issued Meta a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million shares of its common stock at USD 0.01 a piece, structured to vest as long as certain milestones are achieved.

The first tranche vests with the initial 1-gigawatt of shipments, with additional tranches vesting as Meta’s purchases scale to 6 gigawatts.

News of the AMD deal comes just days after Meta announced a long-term partnership where it will use millions of chips and other equipment from Nvidia for its artificial-intelligence data centres.

AMD is looking to keep pace with Nvidia in the AI craze that’s widely viewed as the biggest tectonic shift in technology since Apple co—founder Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone.

NVIDIA carved out an early lead in tailoring its chipsets, known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, from use in powering video games to helping to train powerful AI systems, like the technology behind ChatGPT and image generators. Demand skyrocketed as more people began using AI chatbots. Tech companies scrambled for more chips to build and run them.

While the appetite for AI chips is still large, there are some concerns about how much companies like Meta are spending on AI and whether they can make back their huge investments through higher profits and productivity in the future.

Mumbai: Indian airlines are expected to reduce losses to an estimated Rs 11,000-12,000 crore next fiscal from a projected Rs 17,000-18,000 crore this financial year, ratings agency ICRA said on Tuesday, February 24, even as it maintained a “stable outlook” for the domestic aviation industry.

ICRA also estimates the domestic air passenger traffic to grow by 6-8 per cent and touch 175-179 million passengers in FY2026-27.

ICRA, in December 2025, had revised its domestic air passenger growth estimates to 0-3 per cent for the current financial year from 4-6 per cent envisaged earlier.

The international air passenger traffic growth for Indian carriers is expected to remain relatively stronger, aided by low base effect, expanding e-visa/visa-on-arrival coverage, and the Central Government’s focus on developing theme-based and iconic tourist destinations, the ratings agency said.

ICRA said the international air passenger traffic is seen growing at 7-9 per cent for this financial year and 8-10 per cent next year, and added that the current fiscal year has seen a period of modest domestic air passenger traffic growth due to cross-border escalations, weather-related disruptions, travel hesitancy following the June 2025 aircraft accident, the impact on business travel owing to the headwinds stemming from elevated US tariffs and operational disruptions at IndiGo in December 2025.

ICRA has maintained a “stable outlook” for the Indian aviation industry, supported by expectations of modest growth in domestic air passenger traffic and a gradually improving operating environment, despite near-term challenges, said Kinjal Shah, senior vice president at ICRA.

“The Indian aviation industry is expected to report a net loss of Rs 170-180 billion (17000-18000-crore) in 2025-26, significantly higher than the estimated net loss of around Rs 55 billion (5,500 crore) in 2024-25.

However, the same is likely to reduce to Rs 110-120 billion (11,000-12,000 crores) in 2026-27, led by growth in domestic air passenger traffic and expected normalisation of operations post disruptions seen in 2025-26 that had resulted in flight cancellations and passenger refunds,” she said.

The industry’s debt metric, which weakened in 2025-26 with an estimated interest cover of 0.7-0.9 times from 1.8 times in 2024-25, is also expected to improve to 1.3-1.5 times in 2026-27, despite increasing debt linked with new aircraft deliveries, according to Shah.

The yields of the industry have declined in the April-December period of 2025-26 on a YoY basis due to a series of external events like cross-border escalations, airplane crash and operational disruptions at IndiGo in the first week of December 2025, ICRA said.

Despite these challenges, the drop in yields was not as steep as the reduction in fuel Cost per Available Seat Kilometre (CASK), as airlines strived to sustain the yield levels amid rising cost pressure from currency fluctuations and operational expenses related to flight cancellations and delays, it said.

ICRA expects the yields to improve in the near term as temporary disruptions ease. Nonetheless, the movement in prices of ATF and the USD-INR rate will remain key monitorable.

According to the ratings agency, the industry saw around 4 per cent capacity addition in CY2025, and the total number of aircraft stood at 865 as of December 31, 2025.

Various industry players have announced large aircraft purchase orders and as per the indicative numbers, the total pending aircraft deliveries stand at more than 1,700 as on January 31, 2026, which are likely to be received over the next 10 years but a large part of these orders is towards replacement of old aircraft with new fuel-efficient ones, ICRA said.

Grounded aircraft have been a cause of concern for the industry over the past few years, as per the ratings agency.

“Engine failures and supply chain challenges had resulted in grounding of 20-22% of the total industry fleet as of September 2023. The same has come down to 13-15% as of February 2026, corresponding to 117 aircraft.”

As the count of grounded aircraft reduces further over time and fresh supply comes in, the balance between supply and the secularly rising demand from domestic and international travellers should move towards a more stable equilibrium,” Shah added.

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty slumped nearly 1 per cent in early trade on Tuesday, February 24, dragged down by a sharp selloff in IT stocks amid rising fears of AI-led disruption.

Besides, rising crude oil prices and renewed concerns over global trade after US President Donald Trump‘s latest tariff remarks also weighed on investors’ sentiment, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 813.13 points, or 0.97 per cent, to 82,481.53 in early deals.

The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 230.15 points, or 0.89 per cent to 25,482.85.

Eternal dropped the most from the Sensex pack, declining 3.82 per cent, followed by HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Trent, Adani Ports, ITC, and Titan.

On the other hand, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, PowerGrid, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Tata Steel were among the gainers.

“The trend of weakness in tech stocks stemming from the potential AI impact continues. The weakness in the ADRs of Indian IT companies indicates that this segment will continue to remain under pressure,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.

He further stated that US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address later in the day and the message that he would convey will be keenly watched by markets globally.

“The EU freezing the deal with US in the light of the tariff changes following the Supreme Court verdict and Trump’s warnings to countries backing away from deals indicate that the tariff drama has more in store for economies and markets. We will have to wait and watch how this drama plays out,” Vijayakumar said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark were trading higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng quoting in the red.

The US equities market ended nearly 2 per cent lower in overnight deals on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 3,483.70 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks worth Rs 1,292.24 crore, according to exchange data.

Brent Crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 1 per cent to USD 72.13 per barrel.

On Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 479.95 points to settle at 83,294.66, while the NSE Nifty advanced 141.75 points to close at 25,713.

Hyderabad: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has emerged as a major driver of Telangana’s economy, contributing nearly Rs 68,000 crore in gross value added (GVA) and supporting about 3.5 lakh jobs, according to a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

The economic impact assessment, carried out by NCAER in October 2025, estimates that the airport accounts for about 4.6 per cent of the state’s GVA. The study examined the airport’s direct operations as well as the ripple effects generated through supply chains and household spending.

RGIA, which began operations in 2008, has grown into a key economic asset for the state. Beyond passenger traffic, it supports trade, cargo movement and investment flows linked to Hyderabad’s expanding business base.

The study used an input-output framework to assess the airport’s direct, indirect and induced impact on output, GVA and employment. Direct impact includes on-site airport operations and related income. Indirect effects arise from procurement and linkages with suppliers, while induced impact reflects spending by employees and others whose livelihoods are connected to airport activity.

According to the study, the Hyderabad airport’s economic footprint extends well beyond its core aviation services. The integrated cityside development, including GMR Aerocity, has added commercial offices, hospitality facilities, logistics parks and industrial capacity around the airport, strengthening its contribution to the economy.

Cargo operations help connect to global markets

The report also highlighted the importance of cargo operations, particularly in pharmaceuticals and perishables, which have helped connect Hyderabad to global markets. Planned expansion of cargo terminals is expected to further boost export-linked activity.

The study noted that ongoing and proposed capital expenditure at the airport would generate construction employment in the short term and address long-term operational needs across airside, terminal and digital infrastructure.

On governance and sustainability, the airport operates under a public-private partnership model, with a focus on service standards and stakeholder accountability. It has also adopted energy efficiency and carbon management measures as part of its sustainability efforts.The NCAER study said RGIA has moved beyond being a transport hub to become a significant contributor to Telangana’s growth, with its impact felt across multiple sectors of the economy.

Hyderabad: Telangana Information Technology (I-T) and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu on Monday, February 23, inaugurated the Global Technology Centre of US insurance major The Hartford in Hyderabad, marking the company’s first-ever foray into India.

The 160,000 sq ft. facility is located in the Financial District in the city’s I-T hub.

The centre is expected to scale to a headcount of nearly 1,200 over the next few years as it expands advanced digital, engineering, and AI-led capabilities for the organisation globally, a state government release said.

The facility will support the company’s enterprise-wide technology transformation journey, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI), digital innovation and engineering excellence, it said.

Operating in a start-up-like environment, the centre is designed for “rapid prototyping and seamless cross–time-zone collaboration with the company’s technology hubs in Hartford, Charlotte, Chicago, and Columbus (in the US)”, it said.

The Hartford’s decision to begin its India journey in Hyderabad follows a “familiar pattern”, Sridhar Babu said.

When Microsoft expanded beyond the United States, their first major development centre outside the US was built in Hyderabad and when Google entered India, they chose Hyderabad and created their largest campus outside Mountain View (in the US), Sridhar Babu said.

In recent years, global leaders like McDonald’s, Vanguard, Dai-ichi Life and Marriott International have also made Hyderabad their “landing point” in India, building Global Capability Centres (GCCs) that drive advanced digital engineering, AI-led operations and global capability building, he said.

“In Hyderabad, we measure our success by the impact we help global institutions create, and we welcome The Hartford as a partner in building the next chapter of digital innovation,” he said.

”The true strength of The Hartford has always been its people. By building on our world-class workforce with this technology center in Hyderabad, we are not only creating new digital and AI capabilities but also shaping the future of insurance technology,” Shekar Pannala, Chief Information Officer of The Hartford, said.

“This center will be a magnet for talent in India – a place where engineering excellence and unified purpose drive innovation at scale,” he said.

Hyderabad: Olectra Greentech Ltd on Monday, February 23, said it has secured a Letter of Intent from the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) through Evey Trans Pvt Ltd for 1,085 electric buses under the PM E-DRIVE initiative.

The Olectra electric buses will be deployed in Hyderabad, further strengthening the city’s clean, efficient, and sustainable public transport ecosystem, a release said.

Olectra Greentech Ltd Managing Director Mahesh Babu said: “Our continued commitment to the Make in India vision and to building world-class electric buses has received strong reinforcement through this prestigious order under the PM E-DRIVE programme”.

The company looks forward to working closely with TGSRTC to deliver efficient, comfortable, and sustainable public transportation that meets the evolving expectations of citizens while contributing meaningfully to India’s clean energy and net-zero ambitions, he said.

For the order, Olectra buses will feature 12-metre low-floor configurations in both air-conditioned (AC) and non-AC variants, indigenously designed and engineered to suit Indian road conditions and high-frequency urban operations, the release said.

Each bus will be equipped with advanced front and rear air suspension systems to enhance ride comfort and passenger safety. Powered by high-capacity Lithium-ion battery packs offering a range of over 250 kilometres per charge, the buses will support opportunity charging in approximately 45 minutes to ensure operational efficiency, it said.

Dedicated wheelchair accommodation will also be integrated, reinforcing Olectra’s commitment to accessibility and inclusive mobility, the release added.