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The number of domestic air passengers in India is expected to double to about 300 million annually by 2030 and the country would still have a vast untapped market, Union Civil Aviation Minister <keyword id="19999763" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="jyotiraditya-scindia" source="keywords">Jyotiraditya Scindia</keyword> said on Thursday. Speaking at the inaugural session of Wings India 2024, a civil aviation conclave and exhibition here, <keyword id="19905342" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="scindia" source="keywords">Scindia</keyword> said India under the leadership of Prime Minister <keyword id="19895781" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="narendra-modi" source="keywords">Narendra Modi</keyword> in the last decade, has been a "shining star" on the global firmament of civil aviation. He said the number of airports and waterdromes will go up to over 200 from the existing 149 in the country. With 300 million passengers a year in 2030, India's aviation penetration would be at 10-15% and still be a potential market in the decades to come. "That is the potential that India holds not only to herself and Asia, but to the world. ...even with achieving 300 million domestic passengers by 2030, we will still be one of the most under-penetrated markets across the top 20 in the world. Today our penetration is roughly about 3 to 4% that will grow to about 10 to 15%. We still have 85% penetration to go," he said. He noted that the domestic air passenger traffic witnessed 15% growth (CAGR) while international air passenger traffic was 6.1%, in the last decade. According to Scindia, India today is the third largest domestic civil aviation market in the world and the seventh largest international civil aviation market in the world. If both domestic and international are combined, then India is the fifth largest civil aviation market in the world. In the last 15 years, domestic and international cargo witnessed a growth of 60 and 53% respectively. "Our domestic cargo traffic over the last 15 years has grown by close to 60% and our international cargo traffic, by close to 53%. And it is our considered opinion and that of industry consultants that domestic traffic which was 153 million in the last calendar year, up from 60 million in 2014, will grow to 300 million by 2030," he said. On the fleet size in the country, Scindia said it has grown from 400 to over 700. "Today, India has become the largest purchaser of aircraft in the world after the US and China. Our fleet size is going to grow from 713 to upwards of 2,000 in the next decade." Observing that 74 airports were built in 65 years, he said the government has modernized and built an additional 75 airports, waterdromes and heliports in the last 10 years. "It is our target, that by 2030, we will take that number from 149 to upwards of 200 airports, waterports and heliports in our country," he said. Scindia also marked the occasion by launching the Udan 5.3 scheme. "This regional connectivity scheme has truly transformed the arena and our sector... today under Udan, infrastructure has been built at 76 airports, waterdromes and heliports. Close to 517 new routes have been operationalised that could not have been dreamt of in the past," he said. Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (retd) VK Singh and Telangana Roads and Buildings Minister K Venkat Reddy also spoke on the occasion.

Air passenger traffic in India expected to reach 300 million by 2030: Jyotiraditya Scindia

<ul><li>More than a day has passed since the New York Times report saying the Indian government bought the spyware from Israel and there is very little in terms of response from the government. </li><li>It shows that either the government doesn’t take lying as a serious charge or it has little material to defend itself and neither of the two is a good show on an elected government in a democracy. </li><li>Check out more stories from the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/bi-newsletter">Simply Put series</a>, Business Insider’s uniquely simple explainers on the hottest news topics every week and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/newsletters_signup.cms">sign up</a> for the weekly newsletter if you like.</li></ul>At first, about six months ago, the question was whether the spyware was used by the Narendra Modi government to trace and track the dissenters. Now, after the New York Times investigation, the first question to be answered is whether Modi's ministers lied to the Parliament. And, the government’s silence on the New York Times charge that it bought Pegasus spyware is eerie. The Prime Minister gave his frequent radio address, called the Mann ki Baat, on January 30, but there was no mention of the Pegasus issue. The opposition is likely to launch a high decibel protest, demanding a response from the Modi government in the Parliament when it opens for <a href="https://businessinsider.in/budget">the Budget session this week</a>. A minister of the Modi government, Ashwini Vaishnaw, had denied the snooping charge in Parliament saying India was not one of the buyers of the Pegasus spyware. The Ministry of Defence backed it up saying it didn’t do any transaction with the NSO Group that sells Pegasus. The government lawyer maintained a similar stance at the Supreme Court of India as well, but the court did not find it convincing. These were some of the court’s observations after the government’s response to the charge that it used national security as an excuse to illegally monitor its detractors: <ul><li>There has been no specific denial by the Centre. Thus, we have no option but to accept the submissions of the petitioner and appoint an expert committee whose function will be overseen by the Supreme Court.</li><li>There is no clear stand from the government. There is a serious concern of foreign agency involvement by surveilling Indians.</li><li>The Solicitor General had suggested that many such reports are motivated. However, such omnibus oral submissions cannot be accepted.</li></ul> Given the Modi administration’s response in the preceding months, the implication of the latest New York Times report is that the Modi administration lied both to the Parliament and the Supreme Court. It’s a charge similar to the Watergate scandal in the United States that toppled the Richard Nixon administration in the early 1970s. Even Subramanian Swamy, a member of Parliament from Modi’s own party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has raised a similar question. <div type="twitter" handle="Swamy39" handlename="Subramanian Swamy" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1326823978174910465/lBQbS0ZX_normal.jpg" favoritecount="15368" retweetcount="4437" status="Modi government must rebut New York Times revelations today that It did indeed subscribe by payment from tax payers… https://t.co/gBWw1J1jfV" createdat="1643424463000" id="1487256113187721217"></div> The New York Times report has alleged that the Indian government under Modi did buy the spyware from Israel as part of a $2 billion purchase of defence equipment. The report also connected this purchase with India supporting Israel at a United Nations (UN) forum ⁠— <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/politics/israel-palestine-conflict-here-is-how-india-has-voted-in-un-over-the-years-6956341.html">a shift from its long-standing support for the Palestinian cause</a> ⁠— to deny a Palestinian human rights organisation an ‘observer status’. More than a day has passed since the latest report and there is very little in terms of response from the government or the Prime Minister. So far, there is a tweet from a junior minister for civil aviation and road transport and highways, General VK Singh, who has called the New York Times ‘supari media’. Taking a Supari ⁠— the Hindi word for betel nut ⁠— is a colloquially used to describe a hit job. Syed Akbaruuddin, India’s former permanent representative to the UN, <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/utter-rubbish-ex-diplomat-syed-akbaruddin-on-nyt-pegasus-report-citing-indias-un-vote-2736819">has ‘rubbished’ the link</a> with India’s stance in support of Israel against Palestinians. Other than these, there isn’t another official word on the matter so far. Considering the seriousness of the charge, it would be fair to expect that the Prime Minister would have defended the government in his Mann ki baat address to the voters today. But he didn't. <div type="Youtube" id="WdprihSHmmQ" title="PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat with the Nation, January 2022" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WdprihSHmmQ/mqdefault.jpg"></div> There are two ways to look at it. Either team Modi doesn’t take the charge of ‘lying to Parliament’ seriously. It’s not a good show on an elected government in a democracy that it doesn’t take offence to being called a liar, especially in the Parliament. Or, it doesn’t have enough material to defend itself. An expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court, led by a former judge RV Raveendran, is already <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/supreme-court-of-india-verdict-on-pegasus-spying-case-appoints-a-retired-judge-committee-for-probe/articleshow/87299281.cms">looking into the snooping charges</a>. If the three-member panel arrives at a conclusion that there was illegal supervision, it could automatically imply that the tool i.e. Pegasus was purchased by the government. A clean chit from the Justice Raveendran panel would be a good thing for Modi and his government but it isn’t here, at least not yet. Meanwhile, ignoring the charge of lying, or wishing it away, is not an option. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/pegasus-google-reveals-how-the-sophisticated-spyware-hacked-into-iphones-without-users-knowledge/articleshow/88383175.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Google reveals how the sophisticated spyware Pegasus hacked into iPhones without user’s knowledge</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/rupee-is-likely-to-weaken-against-the-us-dollar-in-2022-as-per-experts/articleshow/89218673.cms">Experts say the rupee is likely to weaken against the US dollar this year</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2022-indian-government-can-help-zomato-swiggy-uber-and-ola-can-increase-salary-of-delivery-partners-and-drivers/articleshow/89180404.cms">There’s a way government can prod Zomato, Swiggy, Uber and Ola to increase salaries of delivery partners and drivers</a>

Simply put, the charge on the Modi government is that it lied to the Parliament about buying Pegasus spyware and it must respond

Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> allocated portfolios to his ministers, giving the Ministry of Finance and Defence to Arun Jaitley. <keyword id="6355111" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sushma-Swaraj">Sushma Swaraj</keyword> was allocated the Ministry of External Affairs while <keyword id="6355121" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajnath-Singh">Rajnath Singh</keyword> got Home Ministry. Here is the list of ministers in Modi’s government: 
 
Cabinet Ministers 
Rajnath Singh — Home Ministry 
Sushma Swaraj — Ministry of External Affairs 
Ananth Kumar — Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of chemicals and fertilisers 
Nitin Gadkari — Surface Transport and Shipping Ministry 
Sadanand Gowda — Ministry of Railways 
Venkaiah Naidu — Urban Development Ministry and Parliamentary Affairs 
Ravi Shankar Prasad — Telecom Ministry, Law and Justice Ministry 
Maneka Gandhi — Women and Child Development Ministry 
Najma Heptulla — Ministry of Minorities 
Smriti Irani - Human Resource Development Ministry 
Radha Mohan Singh — Agriculture Ministry 
Nirmala Sitharaman — Minister of State for Commerce 
Prakash Javadekar — Minister of State for Information &amp; Broadcasting 
Ram Vilas Paswan — Food and Civil Supplies Ministry 
Arun Jaitley — Finance Ministry and additional charge of the Defence Ministry 
Uma Bharati —Minister of Water Resources and Ganga 
Jual Oram —Minister of Tribal Affairs 
 
Ministers of State (Independent Charge) 
General VK Singh – Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs 
Inderjit Singh Rao – Planning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), Defence 
Santosh Gangwar – Textiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation 
Shripad Naik – Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge) 
Dharmendra Pradhan – Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge) 
Sarbananda Sonowal – Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) 
Prakash Javadekar – Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs 
Piyush Goyal – Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) 
Dr Jitendra Singh – Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances &amp; Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space 
Nirmala Sitharaman – Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance, Corporate Affairs 
 
Ministers of State 
GM Siddeshwara – Civil Aviation 
Manoj Sinha – Railways 
Nihalchand – Chemicals and Fertilisers 
Upendra Kushwaha - Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation 
Pon Radhakrishnan – Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises 
Kiren Rijiju – Home Affairs 
Krishan Pal – Road Transport and Highways, Shipping 
Sanjeev Balyan – Agriculture, Food Processing Industries 
Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava – Tribal Affairs 
Raosaheb Danve – Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution 
Vishnu Deo Sai – Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment 
Sudarshan Bhagat – Social Justice and Empowerment

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Air passenger traffic in India expected to reach 300 million by 2030: Jyotiraditya Scindia

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Simply put, the charge on the Modi government is that it lied to the Parliament about buying Pegasus spyware and it must respond

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Modi Allocates Portfolios To Ministers

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