India, global aviation body sign pact on skill development

August 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy J.

August 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The country's premier long distance education varsity, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has collaborated with nearly a dozen universities in as many countries to develop skills among 10 million rural people in the next six years. The aim is to make rural people skilled.

August 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel on Tuesday said that there was no plan of retrenchment and early retirement scheme for the civil aviation sector employees. "There are approximately 52,042 employees working in the civil aviation sector in the attached/autonomous/public sector organisations under this ministry.

July 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India and United States on Monday signed three agreements, including a strategically important Defence pact besides the two countries also announced the beginning of strategic dialogue. India and the U.S.

July 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The new aviation regulator, Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), will settle all contentious issues in the aviation sector, including the airport development fee issue, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here Thursday. Replying to questions in parliament, Patel said: "AERA has been constituted by an act of parliament and has started functioning.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Out of a total plan outlay of Rs.12,165 crore for the civil aviation ministry, a sum of Rs.190 crore will be provided as budgetary support to various organisations under the ministry, the government said Monday after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the annual budget in Parliament. Out of the Rs.190 crore, India's airport developer, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been allocated Rs.99.15 crore for development of airports.

July 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Saturday launched a skill development programme to train about 100,000 domestic workers here in a variety of subjects ranging from personal hygiene to first-aid. The initiative would also educate such workers about intra-personal communication skills, components of urban meals, management of urban kitchens, serving cooked food in formal environment and maintaining kitchen gardens.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - India and the US have agreed to work towards making the Aviation Cooperation Programme (ACP) more productive for India in its efforts to modernise the civil aviation industry as it undergoes rapid expansion. The agreement was reached during a June 10-12 visit here by a high level delegation led by Civil Aviation Secretary Madhavan Nambiar.

May 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Nursing state-run carrier Air India back to financial health will be the top priority for Praful Patel, as he listed his main agenda for the ministry soon after being named minister of state for civil aviation once again. "As soon as I was given aviation (portfolio), I got a call from the Air India chairman and managing director.

May 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congratulating India for the 'remarkable conduct' of the Indian general elections, France Sunday underlined its keen desire to intensify bilateral ties and reaffirmed support for a bigger role for India in global bodies. In a letter to his Indian counterpart Pratibha Patil, French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to 'the faithfulness of the largest democracy in the world to the values of liberty, people's sovereignty and respect of diversity in secularism.' Sarkozy also expressed his 'delight' at pursuing and intensifying the strategic partnership 'which links our two countries in the service of peace, sustainable development and the fight against global scourges such as international terrorism.' He reaffirmed France's support for rightful place for India in international multilateral institutions 'so as to build a controlled globalisation in the service of human development and peace'.

March 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's aviation industry is likely to see a 6.8 percent fall in demand and 4 percent drop in capacity in 2009 due to the 'rapid deterioration of the global economic conditions,' an international air travel lobby said Tuesday. 'Overall, India is expected to see a 6.8 percent fall in demand but only a 4 percent drop in capacity,' Giovanni Bisignani, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said in a statement.

March 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has assured its US counterpart that India will soon have a separate agency for investigating air accidents, a government official said Monday. 'We are streamlining the working of our agency and would have a separate agency to handle air accident investigations.

February 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - India will sign a unique safeguards agreement with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later Monday - a key step that will enable the resumption of global civil nuclear commerce with New Delhi. India's Ambassador to Vienna Saurabh Kumar and IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei will ink the India-specific safeguards agreement in Vienna later in the day.

January 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India will join the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a world body that acts as the global voice for renewable energies to help accelerate their development and deployment. A cabinet meeting chaired by Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee Thursday decided that India will forge partnerships with other member countries at the multilateral level for cooperation in technology transfer and joint research of renewable energy technologies.

January 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India and Kazakhstan are set to invigorate their ties when they sign a nuclear pact and other economic agreements during the four-day visit of the energy-rich Central Asian country's President Nursultan Nazarbayev that begins Jan 23. 'The visit will further consolidate and provide fresh impetus to the bilateral relations,' the external affairs ministry said here Wednesday while announcing his visit.