5 things to know about former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy who remained undefeated for over 5 decades

News Network

July 18, 2023

Two-time Kerala Chief Minister and and veteran Congress leader Oommen Chandy, 79, passed away early morning on Tuesday, July 18 at a hospital in Bengaluru. The news was shared by his son Chandy Oommen on Facebook. "Appa has passed away," he wrote at 4.30 AM.

The former CM had been ailing for over three years. He was under treatment in Berlin’s Charite Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram’s NIMS Medicity and Bengaluru’s Health Care Global Enterprises.

Oommen Chandy was a towering figure in Kerala politics with a career spanning over five decades. His death has triggered a wave of mourning in the Congress, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge hailing the 79-year-old as a visionary leader. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condoled Chandy's passing away through a tweet.

Here are the five major points you should know about Oommen Chandy:

1) Oommen Chandy was a two-time Kerala Chief Minister. His first tenure began in 2004 and lasted till the 2006 Kerala assembly elections which the Congress lost. He then was appointed the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly till the 2011 elections which the Congress-led coalition won. Chandy then governed as the Chief Minister for the full term of five years till 2016.

2) Chandy has the record of being the longest-serving MLA in the Kerala assembly. Since he first won the Puthuppally assembly constituency in 1970, no one had been able to win it from him in these 53 years. He won 12 consecutive elections from the seat and in August last year achieved the record for being the longest serving legislator in the assembly of the coastal state.

3) He also held important portfolios as a minister in the state assembly four times. He was the Minister of Labour (April 11, 1977-April 25, 1977 and April 27, 1977 – October 27 (1978), Home (December 28, 1981-March 17, 1982), and Finance (July 2, 1991 – June 22, 1994) in governments headed by K Karunakaran and A K Antony.

4) In 2013, Chandy received the prestigious United Nations Award for Public Service. He received the award for his mass contact programme in the state as CM.

5) Born in 1943, Chandy ventured into politics in his student days. He joined the Kerala Students Union, the student wing of Congress in Kerala, and in 1967 rose up to the post of president in the organisation. In 1970, he became the president of the state Youth Congress. In the same year, he was elected in the Kerala Assembly from the Puthuppally seat, which was considered a bastion of the Left at that point.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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