NEWS

When Tata Sons Ltd successfully bid for Air India and took over the Maharaja’s cockpit in January, everyone expected the group to get cracking on a complete overhaul of the airline.  

Air India takes baby steps in improving performance after takeover by Tatas, hard work lies ahead© Moneycontrol Air India takes baby steps in improving performance after takeover by Tatas, hard work lies ahead

And in keeping with the expectation, the Tata group is looking at enhancing the quality of on-board services apart from expanding the airline’s global footprint. It also has a plan to increase the number of narrow-body and wide-body aircraft in its fleet with the aim of connecting India directly with all points on the globe. 

At least 17 solar eruptions from a single sunspot on the sun have blasted into space in recent days, and may reach Earth as moderate geomagnetic storms by Thursday (March 31). The sun eruptions originated from an overactive sunspot, called AR2975, which has been firing off flares since Monday (March 28). The stellar event may also cause some moderate sky storms on Earth, Space.com reported.

Sunspots are eruptions on the sun that occur when magnetic lines twist and suddenly realign near the visible surface. At times, these explosions are associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or streams of charged particles that shoot into space. NASA's powerful Solar Dynamics Observatory captured stunning views of the solar eruptions, as did the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

A day of high drama marked by suspension of a Congress MLA and allegations of cross-voting culminated in the BJP and ally United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) winning both Rajya Sabha seats from Assam.

Late Thursday night, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted: “We won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam (one bay the BJP and other by UPPL, our partner) by a huge margin of 11 and 9 votes respectively.”

The ruling BJP-led coalition government had fielded Pabitra Margherita (BJP) and Rwngra Narzary (UPPL), both of whom won. Former state Congress president Ripun Bora lost the lone seat the party was contesting.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Thursday released a new order regarding monthly prepaid tariff plans.

It stated that every telecom service provider (TSP) offering at least one ‘Plan Voucher’, one ‘Special Tariff Voucher (STV)’ and one ‘Combo Voucher’ will now be renewable either on the same date of the following month or on the last date of the following month, if a specific date is not available.

Telcos have 60 days to comply with the modified order.