Major reforms unlikely before 2014 polls, says chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu

April 20, 2012

Washington, April 20: Major economic reforms in India would hit a roadblock and are unlikely to happen before the next parliamentary elections slated for 2014, chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu has said.

Addressing a meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Wednesday, an eminent Washington-based thinktank, Basu said that relatively less important bills might go through Parliament.

After 2014, he said, "you would see a rush of important reforms" and after 2015 India would be one of the "fastest growing" economies of the world. The new government, if in a majority, would start with the reforms in a big way because there is a sense that it needs to pick up, Basu added.

At the same time, he said, there were some reforms that needed to go into fast gear and identified opening up of the retail sector as one key reform in waiting. India, he said, also needed to address the issue of massive subsidy leakage and that of poor infrastructure.

After the elections, the government of the day would take reforms on fast track and there would be a flurry of reforms, Basu said in his address.

Kaushik Basu said there is a slowdown in decision making. The unearthing of a series of corruption and scams, he argued, is having its own impact on the psyche of the bureaucracy, that is not willing to take risks.

Basu is in Washington to attend the Annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank. He was addressing concerns expressed by US corporates on some recent decisions of the Indian government and its reluctance to initiate the series of next phase of reforms.

Reforms, he said, have also slowed down because of the coalition government.

Another reason for the slowdown is the battle against inflation and drop in agricultural production.

India, Basu said, acted on both the fiscal and monetary policy. Finally, India too is impacted by the global economic slowdown.

"We are going through a difficult year," Basu, who is accompanying finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to the IMF-World Bank meet, said, adding that India is trying to go back to fiscal consolidation

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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