The staggering pilot shortage, Surat’s got a new sparkle, and more top news

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India’s carriers are adding new planes but there aren’t enough commanders to fly them. Kapil Kaul of aviation think tank CAPA told Economic Times there’s an annual shortage of 240 pilots. The reasons range from a limited pool of homegrown commanders (vis-à-vis first officers) to stringent regulatory approvals for hiring expatriate commanders. Last year, the aviation regulator doubled the notice period for commanders to a year while leaving enforcement to the discretion of the airlines. Collectively, Indian carriers are to induct about 100 new aircraft by March 2019.

The realty market may be bleeding, but Surat is shining like a diamond. A Knight Frank report shows home prices in the city surged 22% in January-March 2018 compared to the year-ago period, the highest rise among 150 cities globally. The reason: a very low base due to the demonetisation of high-value banknotes in November 2016. Ahmedabad also featured among the top 10 cities globally that saw the maximum price appreciation. In contrast, property prices in India rose just 3.3% in September-December 2017 as sales plunged 40% from 2013-14 levels.

Andhra Pradesh is the country's most business-friendly state. The South Indian state snagged the top spot in the World Bank and central government's Ease of Doing Business survey for the second year running, followed by neighbour Telangana and Haryana. Jharkhand and PM Modi's home state Gujarat completed the top five. Last year, India broke into the top 100 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey, notching up the biggest improvement among all countries.

India is heading towards a comprehensive healthcare crisis, according to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. That’s because the country spends about 1% of its GDP on public health compared to the UK’s 7.9%, Singapore’s 2.2%, and the US’ 8.5%. In the foreword to a book on this subject, Sen lists the “amazing neglect” of primary healthcare, hasty reliance on private healthcare and the lack of informed public discussion as three general failures in this space. “Even within South Asia, Bangladesh and Nepal have overtaken India in health accomplishment, including in life expectancy,” Sen says.

Over 70,000 employees of SBI's erstwhile associate banks will have to repay the overtime earned during demonetisation days, Business Line reports. An official communication to various zones clarified that the allowance was meant only for those working at SBI’s own branches, since the five associate banks functioned on their own before April 2017. The compensation – up to ?30,000 for officers and ?17,00 for clerical and other staff – was paid as ‘out-of-pocket expense’ between March and May 2018.

Idea of the Day: We all have control over our time, so let’s stop saying we are “too busy,” advises Go By Truck president and co-founder Dawn Strobell.

“When you stop making excuses for yourself, you will realise how much time you actually have to dedicate to your purpose, and you can start spending your time making positive changes in ways that matter to you.”

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