AC, NONAC RESTAURANTS MAY BE TAXED AT SAME RATE OF 12%

A ministerial panel set up by the GST Council has arrived at the view that both air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned restaurants could be the taxed at the same rate of 12%. The panel will meet again on Oct 29 to finetune the proposal and place it before the Council on Nov 9. NEWDELHI: As many as 15 passenger jets of Indian airliners suffered midflight engine damage, according to the civil aviation regulator’s data till August this year.

The numbers are the highest for six years and put to question aviation safety in the country.

The scariest perhaps are the two occasions when an engine caught fire during take-off. In another case, the high-pressure turbine blade of an engine came off, missing the tank loaded with highly combustible aviation fuel by a whisker. “All three cases were of serious nature as anything could have happened to the aircraft. The passengers had a narrow escape,” an official in the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

Flights with a blown engine are guided to the nearest airport for an emergency landing in accordance with the safety protocol. The six-year data obtained through the right to information law show only seven aircraft reported engine snags during flights in 2016.

“An aircraft is inspected before passenger boarding. There are instances of flaws getting detected during inspection. In such cases, we ground the plane,” the official said. “But if a snag develops after take-off, during landing or whilst the plane is airborne and cruising, it is serious.”

Of the 15 cases so far this year, seven engines were manufactured by CFM International, an American-european joint venture that has both Airbus and Boeing on its client list. NEW DELHI: Catch alerts on television and radio or in newspapers from Tuesday about dipping pollution levels in the national capital, whose filthy air makes news around this season’s headline show, Diwali.

Authorities will broadcast warnings whenever the city’s air quality turns “very poor” or worse, as part of a “graded response system” for pollution that was cleared by the Supreme Court last December.

Daily air quality readings are