Please welcome “Baby Uber “.

So we have the first baby Uber in town. Yes you heard it right , a woman gave birth to a child in an Uber cab last week. The lady who was going towards Safdarjing Enclave in Delhi went into labour . The cab driver initially panicked but then took the matter in his hands and delivered the baby in the can itself. It was a difficult situation for the cab driver, Shahnawaz, and the onlookers but it all ended well when a healthy baby was born.

“I asked them to get an ambulance”, says Shahnawaz. But even after repeated calls no ambulance was seen in sight and the driver had to take the important decision.

This is a positive news for the cab provider after the unfortunate rape incident in an uber cab last year. The woman wanted the cab the driver to name the baby and the cab driver decided to name him Uber.

After this news we wish to hear about the ‘OLA’ baby soon :).

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Emirates aims a bounty from India.

Gulf carrier Emirates is eyeing the great India travel by flying more than 85 million travelers by 2020. India is slated to be the Third largest aviation market by 2020 and Emirates want to earn the major share of traffic from here . According to Vice Chairman of the Company Essa Sulaiman Ahmad ” In the next five years, we are looking for 67 per cent growth in the number of passengers flying to and from India. We are looking for a greater chunk in the segment we operate in. We are looking for more investments in building our products to achieve the goal (of ferrying 85 million passengers).” He was speaking at a conference for Emirates contribution to Indian Economy and beyond.

Emirates has become one of the aviation giant in recent times with its gateway from Dubai. It connects to 140 destination globally from the Emirate capital and is slated to be a Aviation power house soon.

“Since the start of our operations in 1985, we have grown steadily and kept the momentum. For the next phase of growth we have kept similar plans to reach more and more people. We are happy that the government called us for participation. We have assigned specific teams for that and they will give necessary comments to the government in due time.”

Now fly directly to Washington Via Air India.

Indian State carrier Air India is considering to start a direct flight to Washington. The move is planned to come in couple of months as Air India recently started a direct fight to San Francisco. It was the fourth US city connected directly by Air India first three being New- York  , Newark and Chicago . The move was annonunced by Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju at a function organized prior to the launc h of direct flight to San Francisco. Air India is planning on connecting as many US cities as possible and would like to earn more profit from the sector.

The direct flight to San Francisco was in huge demand and was sold out within a few days of launch . Air India used to fly to Washington via New York and also to Los Angeles but was stopped after merger of Air India and Indian Airlines in 2011.

The flight to Sanfrancisco will be one of the longest flights with a duration close to 17 hours . Air India plans to use newly bought B77-200R aircraft on this route .This will be first direct flight from Air India to the US west coast. It would help connect India to Silicon Valley directly . The flight to San Francisco will depart of Wednesday Friday and Sunday and will arrive to Delhi on Monday , Thursday and Saturday .It will have a three configuration seating plan with 8  first class, 35 business and 195 economy class seats.

Air India currently flies to 35 destinations including middle east and Australia .

Inland waterways can help save Rs 10000 crores in Coal transportation.

Modi government flagship project of transporting goods through inland waterways can help the government save Rs 10000 crores , according to Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari. The ministry is trying to convert 11 rivers across the country as Inland waterways and plans to invest in this direction .

According to Nitin Gadkari ” Inland waterways will help in saving logistics costs and boost movement of goods and passengers across the country. Besides, they will also save around Rs 10,000 crore per year while transporting coal, a crucial resource. I am hopeful that Parliament will approve the bill to convert 111 rivers across India into National Waterway. We expect the ports to register a profit of Rs 6,000 crore this fiscal, which the government will invest to create assets to spur growth.”

It is a cheaper and Eco friendly medium of transportation of goods as one Horse Power of Energy can be utilized to transport 150 kg on road, 500 kg on rail and 4,000 kg on water besides one litre of fuel moves 24 tonne/km on road, 85 tonne/km on rail and 105 tonne/km on water.

He also added that there will be a massive change in the infrastructure in near future as government is planning to convert many 4 lane highways into 8 lanes and large number of express highways will be turned in express ways. The move is controversial though as there was an uproar in parliament on land acquisition by the government . It will be interesting to see what turn does the government takes in recent times in this direction .

IRCTC becomes the top online commerce Co in the country .

IRCTC the flagship ticket booking portal of Indian Railways becomes the highest online grosser of the country with ticket sales worth Rs 20,000 crore . The revenue is double the e -tailer flipkart. The numbers have crossed a whopping $3 billion and has grown by 34 % as the company sold tickets worth 15,000 crore in the same period last year. The website also posted a profit of Rs 130 Crore  which has increased from 72 crore the company earned last year.  In a statement issued by Public Relation manager of IRCTC Sandeep Dutta ” “Bulk of the sales may be attributed to IRCTC’s rapid growth in e-ticketing which has been due to its interface and setting up of a very robust process. Capacity enhancement was done to book 7,200 tickets per minute as against 2,000 tickets per minute in the existing system.”

The website made a record 13.4 lakh tickets in one single day this April. E ticketing amount to 55% of the total tickets sold by the organization. The portal also showed a 19% increase in the income to 1,414 crore from service charge and selling of Rail Neer , the water service brand from Indian Railway .The portal charges a commission to the ticket sold on the portal and levy’s a sevice charge to its customers. The website has a monopolistic position and attract several brands to advertise on the platform . According to Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at retail consultancy Third Eyesight ” By having a monopolistic position, higher web traffic and sales, IRCTC can attract several brands on its portal, feel experts. “A large part of the Indian population trusts IRCTC and brands across consumer, food and tourism can use it to advertise or sell their products on the portal”.

The portal plans to hit $1 billion mark by FY2020 .

Air Asia India reports quarterly loss in July September.

Air Asia India reports a quarterly loss of 41.3 million between the period July & September .The amount has trebled as compared to last year in the same period. The company doubled its revenue to 131 .2 crore . The airline carried 4,16,182 passengers in the period while it increased its net passenger carrying capacity by 221% to 545,760 seats. The load factor increase was low at 1 % though which shows that the airline is not in great demand as compared to other airlines. These results are not in sync with the company’s esteemed founder Tony Fernandes who said that the company will make some profit in October December period. Earlier he said “There is only one profit in my mind and that is net profit.”

These are not the good times of the company as the airline as posted losses in most of  its sectors in various countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines and Japan. The company made profit only in Thai Air Asia only .

Ola names Rajiv Bansal as its new CFO

Ola has named Infosys vetran Rajiv Bansal as its chief financial officer . Bansal has a rich experience of 21 years and will join the on demand transporation major in January 2016.  The current CFO Mitsh Shah will head the strategic finance team and will report to Bansal for various financial measures.

In an interview given to ET ,” Bhavish Aggarwal CEO of the company has said Rajiv’s understanding and expertise in the finance domain is extremely valuable for us at this juncture of growth.”

Ola recently received its final round of funding of $500 million from Baillie Gifford, China’s biggest taxi aggregator Didi Kuaidi and existing investors Falcon Edge, Tiger Global, SoftBank, and DST Global. The company is currently worth over $5 billion and has raised $1.3 billion so far.

Sleeping Pods launched at IGI airport Delhi

India’s iconic international airport IGI Delhi added a new dimension to its airport lounge. The airport launched SAMS or Snooze at my place program in which travelers can sleep in specialized sleeping pods at the airport. These pods are available at first come first serve basis and users can pay in accordance to the number of hour they spend in these pods. These pods are placed in between the Transit and the departure area.

This is in innovative move by the airport as users can use these pods to work and relax  whenever required . Delhi Airport , already known for its beautiful design and architecture is coming up as one of the few transit destinations for travelers travelling to South East Asia and beyond. With these pods traveler’s will be able to save their dime on hotel stays required during transit.

These pods are equipped with a bed to rest and sleep, working table for your lap top, Wi-Fi, electric-plugs, Flat TV Screens, DVD player, charging sockets for cell phones etc. The airport is charging $12/hr for single accommodation and $22/hr for double accommodation for these pods.

Avinash Subba is appointed as the new sales director for Eastin Easy Kolkata.

Eastin Easy Kolkata made two new appointments with Mr Kaushik Bhaumik appointed as the General Manager and Mr Avinash Subba appointed as the new sales director. Mr Subba comes with more than 13 years of experience in the Hotel Industry. Prior to this appointment he was associated with Monotel Luxury Hotel as Assistant General Manager for Sales and Business development.

Mr Kaushik Bhaumik who was appointed as the General Manager is a Hotel Industry pioneer with more than 17 years of experience in the industry. With a natural flair for hospitality and specialization in food beverage management Mr Bhaumik brings with him an expertise which would help the Eastin Easy hotel to reach the next level.

Marriott checks in at Starwood , buys the iconic chain for $12.2 billion.

Mariott international is buying one its near rival Starwood for a whopping $12.2 billion. This will take Mariott to the pole position way ahead of its any near competitior the Hilton group.The deal would be a cash and stock deal and would increase the overall Marrott’s property by 50%.It would also give them a design edge to counter young audience.With the completion of the deal Marriott would add 5500 properties with more than 1.1 million rooms around the globe.The deal would also add popular starwood brands like Sheraton, Westin, W and St Regis to Marriotts kitty.

In a call to wall street analysts Starwood CEO Adam Aron said “To be successful in today’s marketplace, a wide distribution of brands and hotels across price points is critical.It appeals to travelers wherever they may go, leverages marketing and technology spend and strengthens frequent traveler loyalty. Today, size matters.”

The group is unique in its own way as they manage franchises more as compared to individual hotels.The price of the properties is thus defined by the hotel owner while the company earns through a set percentage of the revenue.The deal would help frequent business travellers and corporate travel departments as they will have more options to leverage the loyalty programs.The deal do comes with the loyalty partnership Starwood had with various players from Travel industry.