Tatas sets up Rs 500 crore AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust for plane crash victims
New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI): Tata Group on Friday announced setting up a Rs 500-crore trust - The AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust - for the victims of the Air India plane crash that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad last month.
Tata Sons and Tata Trusts have committed Rs 250 crore each to the Trust, which has been registered as a public charitable trust in Mumbai.
"The Trust will provide both immediate and continuing support to the dependents/next-of-kin of the deceased, to those who were injured, and to all others who are directly or collaterally affected by the accident," Tata Sons said in a statement on Friday.
Besides, the Trust will provide aid and assistance for alleviation of any trauma or distress suffered by the first responders, medical and disaster relief professionals, social workers and governmental staff who provided invaluable institutional support and service in the aftermath of the accident.
A five-member board of trustees will manage and administer the Trust. S Padmanabhan, a former Tata veteran, Sidharth Sharma, Tata Sons' General Counsel, have been appointed as trustees and the three other trustees will be appointed shortly.
The philanthropic objects of the Trust include ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 crore for those deceased, medical treatment of those who suffered serious injuries, and support for rebuilding the B J Medical College Hostel infrastructure in Ahmedabad, which was damaged in the accident.
According to the statement, the Trust will be funded and will commence its work in all earnestness after necessary registration with the tax authorities and other operational formalities, currently underway, are completed," the statement said.
On June 12, an Air India plane, en route from Ahmedabad to London, crashed into a building soon after takeoff, killing 260 people, including 19 on the ground. Out of the 242 people who were onboard the ill-fated Boeing 787-8 aircraft, only one passenger survived.
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Madras HC strikes down TN order limiting maternity leave for third child
Chennai: The Madras High Court has set aside a Tamil Nadu government order restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks, holding the move to be contrary to established legal principles.
A division bench comprising Justices R Suresh Kumar and N Senthil Kumar ruled that there was no justification to treat third pregnancies differently from the first two, observing that the physical and medical requirements of childbirth remain the same irrespective of the number of pregnancies, as reported by The News Minute.
According to a report published by Live Law, the court was hearing a petition filed by Shayee Nisha, a staff member of the district judiciary in Villupuram, whose request for maternity leave from February 2026 to February 2027 had been curtailed to three months by authorities citing the March 13, 2026 government order.
Quashing the decision of the Principal District Judge and related directions asking her to resume duty, the bench directed that she be granted maternity leave on par with that provided for earlier pregnancies, allowing up to 365 days.
The court noted that both the Supreme Court of India and earlier rulings of the High Court had consistently held that maternity benefits cannot be denied for a third child. Holding the restriction to be unsustainable, the court directed authorities to process maternity leave applications without discrimination based on the number of pregnancies.
It also pointed out that a similar issue had been addressed by a division bench earlier this year, which had disapproved denial of maternity leave in such cases and directed that its ruling be circulated among judicial officers. Despite this, the state issued the impugned order, the bench observed.
