Congress leader and Gandhi loyalist Capt. Satish Sharma dies

Panaji: Congress leader and former union minister Captain Satish Sharma died in Goa on Wednesday after a brief illness. He was 73. Sharma was suffering from cancer and was ailing for some time. "He died at 8.16 PM at Goa. His last rites would be done in Delhi on Friday," his son said. A close aide of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sharma was Union minister of petroleum and natural gas from 1993 to 1996.

New Delhi, Feb. 17: Congress leader and former union minister Captain Satish Sharma died in Goa on Wednesday after a brief illness. He was 73.

Capt. Sharma was suffering from cancer and was ailing for some time.

“He died at 8.16 PM at Goa. His last rites would be done in Delhi on Friday, as the body is being brought from Goa,” his son Samir told PTI.

A close aide of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Capt. Sharma was Union minister of petroleum and natural gas from 1993 to 1996 in the Narasimha Rao government.

Born on October 11, 1947 Andhra Pradesh’s Secunderabad, Capt. Sharma was a professional commercial pilot.

A three-time Lok Sabha MP who represented Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies, Sharma was a Rajya Sabha member for three terms representing the states of MP, Uttarakhand and UP.

He first became a member of Rajya Sabha in June 1986 and was later elected to the Lok Sabha from Amethi in 1991 after the death of Rajiv Gandhi.

He was later a member of Rajya Sabha from July 2004 to 2016.

Sharma is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. in

With people resuming domestic travel, hotel occupancies have improved from 26 per cent in the September quarter to 40 per cent in the December quarter. Revenues per room too have moved up.

Average national level hotel occupancy in the December quarter was around 37 to 40 per cent, which was higher than 23 to 26 per cent in September quarter. However, this was still lesser than 68-71 per cent occupancies witnessed in the same quarter of 2019, as per the data from HVS-Anarock.

The year 2020 saw hotels having 33-36 per cent occupancy. In 2019, it stood around 65- 68 per cent.

Similarly, the hospitality industry witnessed a decline of 54.9 per cent in revenue per available room (RevPar) in 2020 as compared to 2019, as per JLL’s Hotel Momentum India data.

RevPar for 2020 was within a range of Rs 1,500 –1,800, while it was Rs 3,800–4,100 in 2019, finds HVS-Anarock.

However, even RevPar has seen some improvement on a quarter-onquarter basis. RevPar in Q3 was around Rs 700 –1,000 and this has moved up Rs 1,500–1,800 in Q4. In Q4 of 2019, it was much higher at Rs 4,400–4,700.

Hospitality data provider STR finds that on a country-wide level, occupancy saw a decline of 28.7 percentage points in

Q4 2020 compared to Q4 2019. In the same period RevPar declined by 60.6 per cent.

Goa continues to be the RevPar leader in absolute terms despite a decline of 33.3 per cent in Q4 2020 compared to Q4 2019 and Bengaluru saw the sharpest decline of 77 per cent. Demand for domestic leisure travel amidst international travel restrictions has made Goa the fastest recovering market in absolute terms.

“We are already seeing signs of domestic business travel pick up in the new year. We expect that occupancies in business hotels will ramp up from March/April onwards,” said Jaideep Dang, MD, hotels and hospitality group, South Asia, JLL.