The battle for India in the West Asian aviation market is hotting up, with Qatar, Dubai and Sharjah asking for around 80,000 additional seats a week as part of their bilateral negotiations with India.

India yesterday announced a massive expansion in capacity between India and Abu Dhabi, within hours of Jet Airways announcing sale of 24 per cent stake to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad. And, an expanded bilateral agreement has already been signed with Oman. Now, if the government fully agrees with the demands of Qatar, Dubai and Sharjah, it would mean a doubling of India's seat capacity from the five West Asian hubs. At present, these hubs together account for about 25 per cent of India's total international passenger market.

On the other hand, domestic carriers have requested for around 20,000 additional seats for Doha, Dubai and Sharjah - only a fourth of what the West Asian carriers have demanded on the same routes. The bulk of this demand has come for Dubai -IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways together have asked for 15,000 more seats a week for this hub. (BILATERAL RIGHTS)

Analysts say the government's decision to enhance capacity between India and Abu Dhabi by 36,670 seats a week for a staggered period of three years will challenge the pre-eminence of Dubai as the largest West Asian hub for Indian passengers travelling to US and Europe. As much as 55 per cent of the Indian traffic to Dubai takes connections from there to other parts of the world; Emirates controls 12 per cent of the international passenger market. After the new agreement, however, Abu Dhabi will have an entitlement of 50,000 seats a week.

Dubai will also face a challenge from Doha, the hub for Qatar Airways, which is aggressively looking at Indian passengers for onward travel to the US and Europe. According to civil aviation ministry officials, Qatar has asked for a major increase in seat capacity - by 48,000 seats a week. After this move, if cleared, with 72,600 seats a week, Doha could emerge as an alternative hub to Dubai.

Even Sharjah (the hub for Air Arabia) has asked for its seat entitlement to be raised by 11,500 a week from 18,816 seats at present.

But Dubai, the 54,200-seat entitlement of which has been exhausted by Emirates and flydubai, too, is not going to give up easily. According to civil aviation ministry sources, it has asked for an additional 20,000-26,000 seats.

Airline industry sources say Emirates wants to fly A-380s, which have more seats, and operate in three new Indian cities of Jaipur, Amritsar and Pune, besides increasing flights from the 10 cities where it is present. On the other hand, flydubai has shown interest in flying beyond its present three destinations to Amritsar, Mangalore, Jaipur, Nagpur and Varanasi. According to a study done for Emirates, this would generate $363-million annual revenue for the sector and help carry 6.16 million passengers from both sides.

India's largest car maker, Maruti SuzukiBSE 5.35 % Limited posted better than expected year on year 79.8% growth in net profit, led by strong volumes of high margin diesel cars like Swift, Swift Dzire and Ertiga.

The net profit for the March ending fourth quarter for FY-13 stood at Rs 1147.5 crore versus Rs 637.5 crore (approximately) it registered for the same period last year.

"The increase in net profit during the quarter was on account of higher sales of new models such as Ertiga, DZire and Swift; cost reduction and localisation efforts, and the benefit of a favourable exchange rate," Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.

The cost reduction and localization efforts and the benefit of a favourable exchange rate also boosted the margins of the company

The net sales of the company jumped 9.4% to 12,566.6 crore, led by a volumes growth of over 3%-4%.

The company's standalone net sales went up by 21.4 per cent to Rs 42,122.9 crore in FY'13 from Rs 34,705.9 crore in FY'12, it added 

During the year, Suzuki Powertrain India Limited ( SPIL) was merged with the Company. Post the merger, the net sales of Maruti Suzuki stood at Rs 13,056.2 crore, net profit was at 1239.6 crore

Shinzo Nakanishi the outgoing CEO of Maruti said that it was a challenging year for auto sector and share of diesel vehicles sales went up by 58% in FY-13 as against 48% (YoY).

Maruti Suzuki India has benefitted recently from a weaker Japanese yen, Nakanishi said, adding that the currency exchange rate between the yen and the rupee continues to be volatile.

Maruti will continue with its plans to reduce its reliance on imports from Japan, Nakanishi told reporters. Imports from Japan account for around 20 percent of its costs.

During its meeting today, the Board of Directors recommended a dividend of 160 per cent, which is Rs 8 per share of face value Rs 5 for 2012-13. The dividend in 2011-12 was at 150 per cent, the statement said.

The share price of the company shot up 4.2% to Rs 1,656.50 post the announcement of result.

Committing to carry forward the economic reforms programme in the remaining term of UPA-II, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the government will take more executive actions in the next two to four months and sought cooperation of the main opposition party to push through important bills in Parliament.

Ruling out early elections, the Minister said the government would last for 13 months more and would continue to take small but significant steps to ensure that the country achieves its potential growth rate of 8 percent.

"There is much more to be done. The remaining bills have to be passed. There are many more executive actions that have to be taken... Some of these are executive actions which we will take in the next 2-4 months.

"We will continue to take small significant steps. We will also take forward some big ideas. India's economy will continue to reform," Chidambaram said while addressing a conference organised by UK-based magazine The Economist.

The Minister sought cooperation of the Opposition party to ensure passage of the land, insurance and Goods and Services Tax (GST) bills in Parliament, saying the economic issues should be dealt in a bipartisan manner.

"We have listed the things we intend to do. We want the Land Bill passed; Insurance Bill passed with FDI at 49 per cent. I sincerely seek cooperation of principal opposition party and other political parties.

"We want the regulator for coal sector, road sector in place; we want rail tariff authority in place to fix tariff in railway sector," the Minister said. 

Chidambaram also referred to the reforms initiatives taken by the government in the recent past.

He said the government had been able to take tough decisions with regard to opening of the multi-brand retail, deregulation of petroleum prices and freeing of the sugar sector partially.

The Minister further said it is important to ensure that both foreign and domestic investors continue to repose faith in the Indian economy, which he said is expected to grow by 6.1-6.7 percent during the current financial year, up from 5 percent in 2012-13.

Chidambaram said there is need to take a relook at the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) caps which were fixed long ago.

"We need to open our economy more. We have to give more space for FDI," he said, adding the FDI caps could be removed if found no longer useful.

Two separate committees 'under RBI and the Finance Ministry' are looking into various aspects of the foreign investment, including removal or raising of the FDI caps.

Promoting FDI was also essential to deal with the problem of widening Current Account Deficit (CAD), he said, adding it is likely to be below 5 per cent during the financial year 2012-13.

"CAD is indeed high... (it) is more worrying that fiscal deficit. In 2012-13, CAD is expected to be USD 90-94 billion. The satisfying aspect of this is that we have financed it completely without drawing down our reserves. There have been copious inflows," he added.

The Minister hoped that CAD would be close to 5 percent during 2012-13 and "going forward, we will bring it down... The way to do that is to boost exports...

"If we can conserve oil consumption by 10 percent, we can save USD 17 billion. And if we can control our passion for gold, we can save many more billion dollars. It's a difficult act but I am confident that with the steps we are taking to encourage inward inflows, we will be able to bring it down," the Minister said. 

Chidambaram said the recent initiatives take by the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) would spur investment activity which is essential for promoting growth and job creation.

"In the previous three meetings, the CCI had cleared projects in sectors like oil and gas, road and power (envisaging) investments worth USD 14 billion...As we remove investment bottlenecks, you will find growth picking up. Growth in 2013-14 will be between 6.1-6.7 percent," the Minister said.

He expressed confidence that the growth rate would move up to 7 percent in 2015-16, without fuelling inflationary expectations.

"I am happy to move up one rung at a time. In 2015-16, we will be getting over 7 percent growth without fuelling inflation. Confidence in Indian economy is rising," Chidambaram said.

Replying to questions on roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Minister said there are 70 percent chances of the getting the bills approved by Parliament in the remaining term of the UPA-II government.

"We reached a stage where the Empowered Committee (of State FMs) has authorised us to draft a constitution amendment Bill and a normal Bill for introducing GST. Work is in progress. The two bills will be ready. We will take it back to the Empowered Committee. Once the Committee endorses the two Bills, we will move them in Parliament," he said.

Referring to the issues concerning inflation, Chidambaram said the declining oil prices in the international market has helped in improving the overall price situation and hoped the downward trend would continue in the coming months.

This declining trend, Chidambaram added, was noticed in the case of core inflation, Wholesale Price inflation and the retail inflation.

The Minister also talked about fiscal consolidation and said he has already drawn red lines and would not allow the fiscal deficit to exceed 4.8 per cent of the GDP in the current financial year.

Concerted efforts helped the government in restricting the fiscal deficit to 5.2 percent of the GDP in 2012-13 against the revised projection of 5.3 percent. 

The Indian government will limit the fiscal deficit for 2013/14 to below 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product, the finance minister said on Wednesday. The fiscal deficit target is a red line that would never, never be breached, P Chidambaram said at an event in New Delhi.

The fiscal deficit for 2012/13 is expected to be at around 5 per cent of gross domestic product, government sources said earlier this month.

Even as the government and the opposition bay for each others blood in Parliament, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today sought cooperation from the opposition benches to get crucial bills -- constitutional amendment for GST, insurance and land acquisition-- passed in Parliament.

So far as reforms through executive actions are concerned, he said the government will take more steps in the next two to four months.  

At a conference organised by magazine, The Economist, here, Chidambaram said,"We have listed the things we intend to do. We want the Land Bill passed; Insurance Bill passed with FDI at 49%. I sincerely seek cooperation of principal opposition party and other political parties."

He also sought support of the opposition on the constitutional amendment bill on GST.

Parliament's standing committee on finance, headed by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, had opposed raising FDI cap in insurance to 49% from the current 26%. However, the Cabinet had cleared the bill with 49%. Now, it is to be tabled in Parliament.

Constitutional amendment bill on GST may have a smoother run as the Empowered Committee on state finance ministers have more or less evolved a consensus on the matter. The Yashwant Sinha headed committee is yet to give its report to government on the bill.

There was also a kind of consensus evolved in the land acquisition bill between the government and the opposition.

Chidambaram reiterated that the government would last its full term and would take both small and big steps towards reforms, even as the many in the opposition have talked of the polls in November-December this year. If the UPA-II completes its full term, polls are due around May 2014.

He said Indian economy has a potential to grow at a rate of 8%. “Our potential growth rate is 8%. If we are not doing, either we are not doing the right thing or we are doing wrong things.’’

Compared to this, the economy grew by a decade low of 5% in 2012-13. Now, the growth is expected to be anywhere in the range of 6.1-6.7% in the current financial year. These too are projections and in the recent past, projections ultimately proved to be way off-mark.

Yesterday, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council had also said that the current investment rate of 35.8% of GDP should yield economic growth rate of 7.5-8%, but rise in incremental capital output ratio due to stalled projects is dragging it down.