PROVIDENT FUND INTEREST RATE CUT

NEW DELHI: The government has cut interest rate on General Provident Fund by 10 basis points to 7.8% for Jul-Sep, in line with the cut in rate onthe Provident Fund.

National passenger carrier Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani on Tuesday reassured employees that their "genuine and valid interests" will be safeguard during the process of divestment. Addressing the employees in a letter dated July 18, Lohani said: "I would also like to reassure all my employees that during the process of disinvestment, the government and the airline management would like to safeguard your genuine and valid interests and ensure that suitable measures to this effect are put in place." The letter comes after the June 28 decision of the Union cabinet which gave its in-principle approval for divestment of AI, whose debt has mounted to Rs 50,000 crore besides huge losses. The Union cabinet's decision on Air India came after NITI Aayog in a recent report

to the Civil Aviation Ministry recommended strategic disinvestment in the loss-making Air India. At present, the national passenger carrier has a debt burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore. The airline in 2015-16 had posted an operating profit of Rs 105 crore. For the last fiscal (2016-17), the company is

expected to report an improved operating profit margin. The flag carrier had got a new lease of life on April 12, 2012, when the previous central government under the UPA had approved a Rs 30,000 crore turnaround (TAP) and financial restructuring plans (FRP) package spanning up to the year 2021.