Jet CEO quits, core sector growth dips, govt to penalise EV firms for flouting norms

The Federal brings you what’s keeping the business world abuzz on Saturday (April 29).

Jet CEO-designate Sanjiv Kapoor quits the airline

Jet CEO Sanjiv Kapur has resigned from the airline exactly a year after he took over his new role.

What it implies: Ankit Jalan, a board member of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, said that the group is committed to reviving the airline but did not clarify when the company will pay Rs 180 crore to the creditors and Rs 250 crore dues to the employees. The deadline for payment is May 14 this year. Several top executives of the airline, including the company secretary, chief security officer, and director of flight safety, have all resigned during the last one month. This puts the entire revival plan of the airline in jeopardy.

Also read: What’s behind the layoff tsunami, and 4 ways techies can navigate it

Core sector growth at a five-month low of 3.6%

An Economic Times report said that the growth in eight core infrastructure industries had hit a five-month decline of 3.6 per cent in March this year compared with 7.2 per cent during February.

What it implies: Poor rainfall has been one of the factors for the slide in core growth sectors, which could accentuate given the forecast for the monsoon, which is expected to be average during the calendar year. Electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas, and fertilizers are the core sectors of the economy.

Govt set to recover “wrongly claimed subsidy” by Hero Electric, Okinawa

The government has started penalising electric two-wheeler makers for allegedly flouting localisation and ex-factory price norms under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (hybrid) and Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme.

Also read: Mankind Pharma IPO fully booked despite tepid interest from retail investors

What it implies: Hero Electric and Okinawa are not the only two EV makers who have received the notice. Ola Electric, Ather, TVS and a few others have also received notices for violating the ex-factory price cap. While the industry lobby group has been advocating for the continuation of the FAME 2 subsidy norms claiming that the industry still news the sops to sustain itself, the reports about violation of norms indicate that there are deeper challenges that the EV makers are being confronted with. For example, a robust charging infrastructure across cities and tier-two towns would have been good enough for the EV makers to reduce their dependence on government incentives.