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New Delhi, India has "incredibly affordable" airfares and the country's aviation market has the kind of growth potential where Akasa Air as well as other carriers can do well, according to the nearly two-year-old airline's chief Vinay Dube. As Akasa Air prepares to take the international skies on March 28 with the first overseas flight from Mumbai to Doha, Dube also asserted that the airline is not about "marketing gimmicks". Akasa Air is aiming to be among the world's top 30 airlines by 2030 and will go public in future. "We think we have a great financial future. Listing is in our future... but you never say never. We hope to list some day," he told PTI in an interview this week. While acknowledging that aviation competition has always been intense, he said that as long as the focus is on fundamentals, there is enough room not just for Akasa Air to thrive in the future but for others as well. "Thanks to the growth that we are going to see in India, it is not that Akasa will do well only if someone else does badly, no, Akasa can do well and others can do well, that is the kind of growth that India has to offer," the airline's Founder and CEO said. The carrier, which started flying in August 2022, has a fleet of 24 planes and a domestic market share of 4.5 per cent. To a query about air ticket prices, Dube said the country has some of the cheapest airfares. India, which is one of the world's fastest-growing civil aviation markets, is also seen in some quarters as price sensitive, especially with rising number of air travellers, including first-time fliers. There have been concerns, mainly during festival seasons, that air ticket prices are high. "I see fares to be some of the cheapest in the world as I saw them three months ago, six months ago... I think Indian airfares when you compare them to parts of Europe, East Asia, North America, you compare to any decent-sized aviation economy in the world, India has some of the most affordable airfares by a long margin, not just by Rs 10 or 100... Indian airfares are incredibly affordable," Dube said. Travel portal Cleartrip's outgoing CEO Ayyappan Rajagopal said airfares are expected to go up, both on international and domestic segments, as there is high demand and more people are making bookings in advance. "In the premium segment, the (price) sensitivity is not so high. There is a second set of consumers, they are a lot more bothered about pricing and they might even take three hops to reach a destination," he told PTI. Meanwhile, Akasa Air's Dube said there is no shortage of pilots at the airline and that there won't be any flight disruptions. The revised flight duty time limitation norms that provide for increased rest time for pilots will come into force from June 1. "We have got around 700 pilots at Akasa. We have no pilot shortage. I don't want to just say no without giving numbers as you can make your own calculations on what an airline with 24 aircraft requires when it comes to pilots. "We are focused on creating a highly reliable network. We want to be India's most on-time airline. We want to make sure we have the lowest cancellation rate," Dube said. On whether there could be disruptions once the revised norms are implemented, he replied in the negative. "Absolutely, 100 per cent you are not going to see disruptions... Reliability is intrinsic to everything we do at Akasa. Nobody should expect any disruptions in June," he noted. Regarding bilateral air traffic rights, the Akasa Air chief said there is plenty of room for international expansion. Some Gulf carriers have been seeking enhanced flying rights to operate more flights to and from the country. However, the government is not in favour of granting more bilateral flying rights. "I think that there may be a couple of markets in the entire Gulf where bilaterals have saturated like Dubai and Sharjah, the best I know but places like Abu Dhabi have a lot of capacity, Dammam has open skies, we have got Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait, I think there is room in Bahrain, Muscat. "So, if you ask me particularly about the Middle East, I don't see issues. South East Asia has a lot of capacity in almost every market. So, I think we are good that there is plenty of room for expansion internationally," Dube said. When asked whether there is any particular tag that Akasa Air would like to be identified with, Dube said that personally, he does not like such a tag. "We are India's most on-time airline, lowest cancellation rates, best baggage... literally, we have got the best leg room in India, take your tape, measure out and measure it, we have got USB ports increasing in flights, the quality of food is fantastic, we think we have got some of the best-trained staff. "... I don't have a tag, Akasa is not about marketing gimmicks. We are really there to serve the people with the best customer service," he said.

The combined market valuation of five of the 10 most valued firms eroded by Rs 1,97,958.56 crore last week, with IT majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys taking the biggest hit amid volatile trends in equities. Last week, the BSE benchmark climbed 188.51 points or 0.25 per cent. The market valuation of TCS tanked Rs 1,10,134.58 crore to Rs 14,15,793.83 crore, the most among the top 10 firms. The valuation of Infosys tumbled Rs 52,291.05 crore to Rs 6,26,280.51 crore. IT stocks fell on Friday after tech giant Accenture lowered its revenue forecast for the sector for the 2023-24 fiscal. Hindustan Unilever's market valuation fell by Rs 16,834.82 crore to Rs 5,30,126.53 crore and that of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) declined by Rs 11,701.24 crore to Rs 5,73,266.17 crore. The market capitalisation (mcap) of HDFC Bank dipped Rs 6,996.87 crore to Rs 10,96,154.91 crore. However, the valuation of Reliance Industries Limited jumped Rs 49,152.89 crore to reach Rs 19,68,748.04 crore. State Bank of India added Rs 12,851.44 crore, taking its mcap to Rs 6,66,133.03 crore. The mcap of ITC climbed Rs 11,108.51 crore to Rs 5,34,768.59 crore and that of Bharti Airtel went up by Rs 9,430.48 crore to Rs 6,98,855.66 crore. ICICI Bank's mcap jumped Rs 8,191.79 crore to Rs 7,65,409.98 crore. In the ranking of the most valued firms, Reliance Industries retained the number one title followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Infosys, LIC, ITC and Hindustan Unilever.

FPIs have shown a significant resurgence in their investment activity within the Indian equity markets this month, injecting over Rs 38,000 crore, mainly driven by favourable shifts in the global economic scenario and strong domestic macroeconomic outlook. The investment came following a modest investment of Rs 1,539 crore in February and a massive outflow of Rs 25,743 crore in January, data with the depositories snowed. With this, foreign portfolio investors' (FPIs) investment has turned positive to the tune of Rs 13,893 crore in equities so far in 2024 and Rs 55,480 crore in the debt market. Himanshu Srivastava, Associate Director at Manager Research at Morningstar Investment Research India, highlighted that FPIs have become significant buyers in March. The improved global economic conditions and positive Indian macroeconomic scenario have driven FPIs to invest in high growth-oriented markets like India. Additionally, the recent market correction has provided a buying opportunity. Further, the influx of FPIs can be attributed to robust GDP growth and expectations of a potential shift in the RBI's policy, possibly leading to rate cuts of 25-50 basis points in the latter half of fiscal 2025, experts believe. However, last week, FPIs turned net sellers, although marginally, to the tune of USD 314 million. This could be largely attributed to FPIs adopting a cautious approach. Apart from equities, FPIs have injected a massive Rs 13,223 crore into the debt market this month (till March 22). This came in the backdrop of Bloomberg announcing India's bonds inclusion in its Emerging Market (EM) Local Currency Government Index and related indices from January 31 next year. Moreover, FPIs have been investing in the debt markets for the past few months. They invested Rs 22,419 crore in February and Rs 19,836 crore in January. "The fundamental reason for this sustained FPI flows into debt is the inclusion of Indian bonds in the JP Morgan EM Bond Fund and Bloomberg Bond Index, which is expected to bring investment of around USD 25 billion. This investment will begin only by June 2024, and therefore, FPIs are doing some front running in view of this potential investment," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said. Further, FPI inflows into debt are likely to continue going forward. However, a sharp surge in debt flows is unlikely since the US bond yields have also risen in recent days, he added.

New Delhi: India's proposed free trade agreements (FTAs) with the UK and Oman are expected to figure in the commerce ministry's 100-day agenda roadmap for the new government, an official said. The ministry will also focus on issues pertaining to the exporting community with a view to promoting the country's outbound shipments. Further talks between India and Australia to expand the scope of existing economic cooperation and trade agreement (ECTA) for a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) are also progressing at a healthy rate. The exercise assumes significance as while chairing a Cabinet meeting on March 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the ministers to meet secretaries and other officials of their respective ministries to discuss how the agenda for the first 100 days and the next five years can be better implemented. The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls, the world's biggest election exercise, will kick off on April 19 with the counting of votes set to take place on June 4. The official said that these two FTAs are in their final stages as talks on most of the issues have been concluded. "The majority of difficult matters in India-UK FTA negotiations are moving towards resolution, and both sides are actively engaged for a fair and equitable deal," the official said. India and the UK launched talks for an FTA in January 2022. There are 26 chapters in the agreement, which include goods, services, investments and intellectual property rights. The 14th round of negotiations was held in January. Chapter-wise textual negotiations are near close, and the schedule on goods and services is at an advanced state of negotiations. Recently, a team from the UK visited India for negotiations on outstanding issues. The bilateral trade between India and the UK increased to USD 20.36 billion in 2022-23 from USD 17.5 billion in 2021-22. According to a report by the think tank GTRI (Global Trade Research Institute), the overall gains for India in the trade deal will be limited because most of the goods from here are already entering the UK at low or zero tariffs (import or customs duties). In 2022-23, India's merchandise exports to the UK were valued at USD 11.41 billion and out of this, USD 6 billion worth of goods such as petroleum products, medicines, diamonds, machine parts, airplanes, and wooden furniture entered Britain at zero levies, it has said. However, there will be gains from reducing duties for Indian exports worth USD 5 billion and those items include textiles, apparel (shirts, trousers, women's dresses, bed linen), footwear, carpets, cars, marine products, grapes and mangoes, the report has noted. On the proposed free trade agreement between India and Oman, the official said that this will be concluded "very" soon. For India, Oman is the third largest export destination among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. India has already implemented a trade pact with another key GCC member - the UAE. The bilateral trade between India and Oman stood at USD 12.39 billion in 2022-23 as against USD 10 billion in 2021-22. India's exports have increased to USD 4.48 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose to about USD 8 billion in the last fiscal year. Another GTRI report has stated that Indian goods worth USD 3.7 billion such as gasoline, iron and steel, electronics, and machinery will get a significant boost in Oman, once both sides reach a comprehensive free trade agreement as these goods at present attract 5 per cent customs duty. Export sectors which could get a boost in Oman include motor gasoline (exports worth USD 1.7 billion), iron and steel products (exports worth USD 235 million), electronics (USD 135 million), machinery (USD 125 million), textiles (USD 110 million), plastics (USD 64 million), boneless meat (USD 50 million), essential oils (USD 47 million), and motor cars (USD 28 million), will benefit from duty elimination, the report has said. Key products imported by India to Oman in 2022-23 included petroleum products (USD 4.6 billion), urea (USD 1.2 billion); propylene and ethylene polymers (USD 383 million). Currently, more than 80 per cent of India's goods enter Oman at an average of 5 per cent import duties, the GTRI report has said. The current government has so far signed trade deals with Mauritius, Australia, the UAE and four European nations EFTA bloc. India has so far signed as many as 14 FTAs and six preferential pacts with its trading partners to promote exports and ensure greater market access for domestic goods and services.