Air India is planning to phase out Boeing 747s that it has been operating for around 50 years now. The airline got its first jumbo jet, a B747-200B named Emperor Ashoka, in 1971. For years, the airline was operating the B747-4 version that has an extended upper deck.

Three of the four B747s in the Air India fleet were mainly being used for VVIP flights but last year the government procured two new updated Boeing 777s as India's version of Air Force One. Those will exclusively be used to fly the President, Prime Minister and Vice President during ultralong/long/medium haul international trips.

The Central Government has been proactive in regard to the scrappage policy implementation. In fact, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made it clear in her budget speech that Scrappage Policy will become a reality. Now, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has been taking care of the progress work in this regard. While speaking on the current progress in regard to the Scrappage Policy in India, Gadkari said that people who junk their old vehicles and buy a new one under the purview of India's vehicle scrappage policy will receive about 5 per cent rebate from automakers on the new purchase vehicles.

Commenting upon the recent developments in regard to the scrappage policy Indian minister Nitin Gadkari said, "Automobile manufacturers will provide about 5 per cent rebate on new car purchases to the consumers in lieu of scrapping the old. There are four major components of the policy...Apart from rebate, there are provisions of green taxes and other levies on old polluting vehicles. These will be required to undergo mandatory fitness and pollution tests in automated facilities. For this automated fitness centres would be required throughout the country and we are working in that direction."

Germany’s Volkswagen group has started to pump in fresh investments to the tune of nearly Rs 8,000 crore for a India fightback, and group company Skoda — that will lead the charge — says it will launch four new cars in the market, taking on models from Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors.

However, just as it expands in India and gets deeper with localisation, Skoda has also said that the government should allow easier import of parts and do away with special tax benefits reserved only for cars under 4 metres.

“It (tax breaks for small cars) has lived its utility and should be done away with,” Thomas Schaefer, chairman of Skoda’s global board, told TOI ahead of the unveiling of the company’s first mass-localised SUV Kushaq that will take on models such as Hyundai’s Creta and Kia’s Seltos.

The vehicle scrappage policy was announced during the 2021 Union Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Union Ministry Nitin Gadkari has always emphasised that the scrappage policy will be a game-changer for the Indian automotive industry. According to a report from PTI, the transport minister now said that owners who scrap their old vehicles will receive a rebate of about five per cent from the manufacturer while purchasing a new vehicle under the scrappage policy. The minister had previously stated that owners scrapping their old vehicles will get some benefits from the manufacturers.

Nitin Gadkari said that buyers of new vehicles opting to scrap their old cars will receive rebate of 5 per cent from manufacturer.

Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train Project: The Gujarat leg of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed rail corridor project may open first if the land could not be acquired in Maharashtra in the next three months, said the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) on Thursday. NHSRCL MD Achal Khare was quoted in a news agency report saying that the 2023 deadline for completing the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train project was not feasible, and civil works on the Gujarat side were expected to be completed by the year 2024. For the 352-km long stretch of the project, NHSRCL has acquired 95% of the land in Gujarat, but the corporation has only been able to acquire 23% of land for the 156-km long stretch in Maharashtra.