Ratan Tata, the 83-year-old patriarch chairman emeritus of the Tata group who had unsuccessfully attempted to buy Air India in the late 90s before its tragic amalgamation with Indian Airlines in 2007, has credited the decision to bid for India’s flagship carrier Air India to group chairman N Chandrasekaran.

In an email response to queries from a business paper, Ratan Tata said: “The decision reached by Tata Sons was totally based on the study undertaken and concluded by those under the leadership of group chairman N Chandrasekaran.”

Tata Sons—the holding company of India’s largest conglomerate—is believed to have also sought the counsel of Ratan Tata in putting a successful bid for the airline. Further, Air India is one of the biggest acquisitions under the stewardship of the current management in India.

India on Wednesday slashed various import taxes on palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil ahead of key festivals as the world's biggest vegetable oil buyer tries to cool near-record price rises.

The tax cuts could bring down local edible oil prices and spur demand and imports, potentially supporting global palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil prices.

The south Asian country slashed its base import tax on crude palm oil, crude soyoil and crude sunflower oil to zero from 2.5%, the government said in a notification.

In line with its bold reform agenda for telecom, the government on Tuesday notified that for future spectrum auctions, the need for submission of financial bank guarantee (FBG) to securitise annual spectrum instalment has been done away with.

Spelling out other modalities around spectrum allocation, the telecom department also said it would appropriately address the eligibility conditions for participation in the auction so that participants have sufficient financial capacity.

The notification follows the blockbuster reforms and support package announced last month by the government for the telecom industry that offered a much-needed breather to players in the sector.

The new holding company for Air India, which will take over real estate, paintings and other non-core assets of Air India, will also be saddled with piles of unpaid bills from the hemorrhaging national carrier, in addition to loans from banks.

These “excess liabilities” being transferred to Air India Asset Holding Company Ltd add up to Rs 15,834 crore — which is more than a quarter of the airline’s total debt, pegged at Rs 61,562 crore at the end of August.

So what are these “excess liabilities”? Government sources said these are largely unpaid bills of oil companies, airport operators and other vendors that Air India had managed to avoid paying over the years by virtue of being a wholly-owned government company. The government too has some part in this as it often delays payments, including for tickets purchased for its employees through another public sector company, Balmer Lawrie.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Roads and Highways, has invited Elon Musk's Tesla to come and manufacture electric cars in the country and has stated that the government will provide all necessary support for the production site. Gadkari said at the 'India Today Conclave 2021': "I have warned Tesla that we would not sell electric cars built in China in India." You should build electric vehicles in our country and export vehicles from India."

The government may consider cutting import duties as well as providing other benefits to Tesla, but in order to do so, the EV manufacturer would have to invest in establishing a manufacturing site in the country. Currently, India slaps a 100% import tax on imported cars costing more than $40,000 (Rs 30 lakh) inclusive of insurance and shipping costs, while cars costing less than $40,000 are subject to a 60% import tax.