News digest: Centre to stick to fiscal target, airfares rise, and more

Finance ministry tells PM fiscal deficit target will be met, capex expenditure won't be cut and GDP growth will surpass 7.5%

Centre to stick to fiscal target of 3.3% as tax revenues on the rise: FM

Finance ministry officials on Saturday apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the “comfortable” revenue position, which they said would help contain the fiscal deficit at the targeted 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018-19, without resorting to any squeeze on the capital expenditure.

On the second day of his review of the economy against the backdrop of a falling rupee and surging oil prices, the prime minister took stock of tax collections and macroeconomic indicators. Read more...

Domestic airfares rise 7.5% ahead of Diwali, tickets prices to Goa soar 30%

Domestic airfares have jumped by 7.5 per cent year-on-year for Diwali holidays, compared to last year as airlines cash in on holiday demand.

The highest increase of over 30 per cent is seen on the Delhi-Goa and the Mumbai-Goa routes for travel during the Diwali week in November, according to data compiled by booking portal Cleartrip. Other routes with a significant fare increase are Pune-Delhi and Delhi-Mumbai showing 19 per cent and 18 per cent rise, respectively. The average growth in fares across domestic network is 7.5 per cent. Read more... 

Super Typhoon Mangkhut threatens to hit Asia with $120 bn in damages

Super Typhoon Mangkhut battered the Philippines with gales and torrential rains, toppling power lines, triggering landslides and damaging an airport before heading toward China’s Guangdong coastline and Hong Kong.

The world’s most powerful storm of the year ripped into Cagayan kilometres in the northern Philippines with winds of up to 269 kilometers per hour.  Read more...

Ex-LIC chief S B Mathur to head IL&FS board, will replace Hemant Bhargava

S B Mathur, former chairman of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), will be the new chairman of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), which is facing a liquidity crisis. He will replace Hemant Bhargava, LIC’s managing director, who was also serving as non-executive chairman at IL&FS since July. The decision was taken at a meeting of the IL&FS board on Saturday. Read more... 

Double delight for England: ODI & Test wins and zooming series ticket sales

Amid much anticipation, India’s baptism in Test cricket occurred in 1932 with a maiden appearance at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, London. Three decades later, though, a certain pessimism about India’s prospects had surfaced at the home of the game following a 5-0 whitewash in 1959. Michael Colin Cowdrey, an eminent English batsman, deprecatingly suggested that the Test playing sides be divided into two leagues, with India figuring in the lower bundle. 

Indeed, eight years passed before India were invited back to England, that too, for a downgraded three-test contest. Read more...