IndiGo launches Shanghai-Kolkata direct flight
Beijing (PTI): IndiGo airline on Monday launched its daily flight from Shanghai to Kolkata boosting the air connectivity between India and China.
The IndiGo6E flight was launched by Indian Consulate General in Shanghai Pratik Mathur.
Meeting the IndiGo management team on the occasion, Mathur underlined the positive momentum, appreciated the growing confidence and enthusiasm being expressed through the booming air connectivity and the resurgent economic links between India and the region, the Indian Consulate in Shanghai said in a post on X.
Indian airlines such as IndiGo and Air India have started connecting Shanghai with metro cities such as New Delhi and Kolkata.
Kolkata is the second Indian metro after New Delhi now linked with Shanghai, China’s commercial capital.
ALSO READ: Centre allocates PDS kerosene to states, UTs in 60-day emergency measure to ease LPG pressure
Air China plans to launch a direct flight between Beijing and New Delhi on April 21, according to officials.
The new route linking Shanghai-Kolkata is also expected to push the development of India’s northeast, Mathur said.
Kolkata and Shanghai traditionally enjoy very strong relations with Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore having visited the city thrice in 1913, 1923 and 1931, he said.
The new connectivity will further encourage people-to-people ties between eastern India and eastern China, led by the two major cities Kolkata and Shanghai respectively, he said.
India and China resumed flights between different cities of the two countries in October last year after a five-year freeze in relations.
IndiGo operates flights from Kolkata to Guangzhou and Delhi to Guangzhou.
Chinese airline China Eastern also resumed flight operations from Shanghai to Delhi.
The flight services between the two sides were suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They were not restored in view of the over-four-year border face-off in eastern Ladakh, which ended in October last year.
The process of normalisation of India, China relations followed two summits between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Kazan in Russia in 2024 followed by a second meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin last year.
Besides flights, India and China have initiated a series of measures to normalise their relations.
In July, India resumed granting tourist visas to Chinese nationals.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Opposition stages walkout in RS over BJP MP's remarks on misuse of OBC reservation
New Delhi (PTI): The Rajya Sabha on Monday witnessed a walkout by several opposition parties over BJP member K Laxman's remarks that OBC reservation is being misused in the name of religion.
Leader of the House and Union Minister J P Nadda criticised the walkout, saying the Congress leadership and the opposition's INDIA alliance are neither interested in debates nor have any respect for democratic values or the Constitution.
During Zero Hour, Laxman raised the issue of OBC reservation, and said their quota is being misused in the name of religion.
He said some states are extending reservations to Muslims and requested the government to order a comprehensive review of such religion-based reservations.
While he was speaking, certain opposition members raised objections to Laxman's remarks.
Later, almost the entire opposition staged a walkout from the House.
Nadda said the opposition parties are disrespectful to the Constitution and do not respect the parliamentary procedures.
He further said opposition parties consider Muslims as a vote bank, while accusing them of engaging in appeasement politics.
