Indonesian Masters: HS Prannoy to lead Indian charge after Satwik-Chirag pulls out
Jakarta, Jan 22: Singles ace HS Prannoy will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Indonesian Masters Super 500 badminton tournament beginning here on Tuesday after the pull-out of crack doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ran kireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Having finished runners-up in back-to-back tournaments of Malaysia Super 1000 and India Open Super 750, the reigning Asian Games champions have given the tournament a miss with an eye on their workload with a gruelling season ahead of them.
The duo's absence may have taken some sheen of the tournament, but world No. 9 Prannoy will look to keep the Indian flag high continuing his consistent run.
Prannoy is only seeded Indian player at No. 7 in the men's singles draw of 32 as he will begin his campaign against Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, against whom the Indian has a 4-1 win-loss record.
The world No. 11 Yew's solitary win against Prannoy was at the 2021 World Championships and since then the Indian has won twice in a row with the last coming in bronze-medal winning run at the last year's World Championship.
Besides the that coveted bronze medal, Prannoy won the Malaysia Masters and finished second in the Australian Open last year.
He has been at his consistent best and had a last-four after being ousted by eventual champion Yu Qi Shi of China in the Indian Open last week.
Before that, Prannoy made an opening round exit in the Malaysia Open Super 1000.
The other Indian, who will be in focus will be world No. 19 Lakshya Sen, looking to end his opening round jinx, when he is up against Weng Hong Yang of China.
The world No. 16 Chinese has a 3-2 win-loss ratio against the young Indian and goes into the match on the back of his Malaysia Open win less than two weeks back.
Since his Canada Open triumph last year, Sen has been on a downward spiral and has capped eight opening round exits in a row.
Last week, Sen lost to his Indian teammate Priyanshu Rajawat in the Indian Open as the former World No 8 will look to find his mojo.
World Bo. 25 Kidambi Srikanth is also in fray and will face Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, while 30th ranked Rajawat will be up against Rasmus Gemke of Denmark.
In Chirag and Satwik's absence, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will be the lone Indians in fray in men's doubles as they will be up against Malaysia's Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the opening round.
No Indians will be fray in the women's doubles and mixed doubles events.
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AI, IndiGo, SpiceJet seek ATF price relief; say airline industry on verge of 'stopping operations'
Mumbai (PTI): Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have told the government that the country's airline industry is under extreme stress and on the verge of "stopping operations", as they sought revision in ATF pricing and financial support.
The West Asia turmoil has pushed up oil prices, and airspace restrictions have increased airlines' operating costs, especially on long-haul routes. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) accounts for around 40 per cent of a carrier's operational expenses.
Against this backdrop, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has written to the civil aviation ministry, seeking steps to extend the same fuel pricing mechanism uniformly across both domestic and international operations as was done in the past with the establishment of the crack band.
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With an unprecedented rise in jet fuel prices and exorbitant crack/differential between crude and ATF, the federation said the operation of airlines is being challenged in totality.
"... any ad hoc pricing (domestic vs international) and/or irrational increase in the price of ATF will result in unsurmountable losses for airlines and will lead to grounding of aircraft, resulting in cancellation of flights," the federation, which represents Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet, said.
"In order to survive, sustain and continue operation, we request your urgent intervention for immediate and meaningful financial support to tide over the current situation," it said in a letter on April 26.
Also, the airlines have sought temporary deferment of excise duty on ATF, which is at 11 per cent.
"With the abnormal increase in ATF prices from the pre-crisis period, adding rupee depreciation to the increased prices, the 11 per cent excise duty also increases manifold for the airlines and adds to the ATF price as a big impact on airlines," they said.
Last month, the government limited the hike in ATF price to Rs 15 per litre for domestic operations, but for international operations, the price rose by Rs 73 per litre.
The airlines said the situation has practically made international operations, along with domestic operations, completely unviable and resulted in significant losses for the aviation sector in April.
Seeking urgent intervention on the current ATF ad hoc pricing, FIA said the current situation is creating a severe imbalance in domestic and international operations and rendering airline networks unviable and unsustainable.
"The airline industry in India is under extreme stress and is on the verge of closing down or of stopping its operations."
The federation has pitched for a transparent pricing framework under the crack band mechanism (USD 12–22/BBL) that was implemented in October 2022, saying there was a fair and reasonable margin for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
According to FIA, the country's largest aviation hub Delhi has the second-highest value-added tax (VAT) of 25 per cent on jet fuel, while the highest rate is 29 per cent levied in Tamil Nadu.
"The other major aviation cities, viz. Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kolkata range between 16 per cent and 20 per cent. These 6 cities cover more than 50 per cent of airlines' operations within India," the federation said.
