Emirates introduce a super-jumbo Dubai to Paris

Emirates airline launched a super-jumbo, A380, plane from Dubai to Paris on Tuesday. The French capital is the latest destination to be served by the airline's much admired super- jumbo after Toronto, London's Heathrow, Seoul, Bangkok, Sydney, Auckland, and Jeddah from February 1, said a news release. Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' senior vice president, commercial operations, Europe and the Russian Federation, said: 'The super-jumbo will gradually replace the morning 777 service out of Dubai, becoming daily from 17th January. The demand for Emirates' services on this route has always been extremely high and it is fitting that one of our Airbus A380s is being deployed to serve France, the headquarters of Airbus, and from where the A380 story unfolded. For us, the A380 has come full circle and what a wonderful way this is to end 2009.' The 489-seat super-jumbo will initially replace EK 073 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The flight leaves Dubai at O800hrs and arrives in Paris at 1225hrs. The return flight, EK 074, leaves Charles De Gaulle at l43Ohrs and gets into Dubai at 2359hrs.

GM India & Chinese company make car in joint venture

For GM India chief Karl Slym, the expansion of the US auto giant's 12-year alliance with its Chinese partner SAIC Motor to tap India's burgeoning vehicle market is win-win for both sides. The two companies announced in December a joint venture with an initial focus on selling mini- commercial vehicles and inexpensive, entry-level cars in India that will later embrace other Asian emerging markets. 'Our first business move will be in India but it won't be the last — we will be spreading to other areas in Asia. We've made a commitment to expand in emerging markets,' Slym told the AFP in an interview. 'There is a big benefit to SAIC to be able to spread its business outside of China. There is also a big benefit for us to partner with them,' Slym said. In China, where General Motors entered in 1996, the Detroit-based company is the second largest automaker, helped by its partnership with China's biggest carmaker, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, or SAIC. GM, which is undergoing a drastic restructuring after being bailed out by the US government, is expected to post sales in China of 1.4 million vehicles this year. But in India, Asia's third-largest car market after China and Japan, where Japanese-owned Maruti Suzuki holds a commanding leadership position, GM has been slower out of the starting blocks. The US auto company, which started selling its Chevrolet marque in India only in 2003, is the fifth-largest carmaker in the country. It sold 67,500 vehicles last year, up 9.5 per cent from the previous year. Analysts see the 50:50 tie-up in which SAIC is investing cash and GM is supplying its Indian plants and sales network as giving GM more resources to grab a bigger share of the Indian market. It also gives the Chinese carmaker its first foothold in India, furthering its aspirations of being an international player. India, with its nearly 1.2 billion population, is one of the world's last remaining big-growth markets for global automakers like GM, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda as they grapple with a wrenching slump in developed markets. Indian car sales are expected to cross two million units next year. At next week's Auto Expo in New Delhi, GM will unveil its compact hatchback Chevrolet Beat, its latest entry in India, where small cars make up 80 per cent of the market. Lately, GM's sales volumes in India have been picking up with the company clocking a 60 per cent year-on-year increase in sales in November— a monthly record. 'GM has really reached a point now where we' re at a tipping point in India and the SAIC tie-up will help continue this growth,' Slym said. Recently, the new joint venture announced an investment of $650 million for the first phase of its operations in India on top of the one billion dollars GM has already invested since it entered the country. The production capacity of GM stands now at around 60,000 units a year. It expects that to rise to 250,000 units by 2012. Under the joint venture, GM and SAIC will roll out small cars from GM's Chinese product offerings along with offerings from GM's existing plants in India.

Toyota Prius issue

Toyota is facing a potential safety issue with its highest profile vehicle, the Prius, the latest in a plague of quality problems that forced it to recall four million vehicles in 2009. A growing number of owners allege that the brakes on the third-generation, 2010 Toyota Prius can malfunction unexpectedly, with at least 20 complaints filed so far with the national highway traffic safety administration. The Japanese automaker said it has launched its own investigation. Robert Becker, 39, is one of those filing among at least 20 who have already submitted their concerns to the national highway traffic safety administration's office of defects investigation. He says he was heading to work on the west side of Manhattan, coming up to an intersection and squeezing the brakes of his 2010 Prius to slow down. But when the car hit a pothole, Becker suddenly had the 'sensation of losing control,' as the brakes released, forcing him to slam down on the pedal. 'It scared the hell out of me. I wasn't sure I could stop in time,' he said, adding the problem has repeated itself a number of times since then. Becker is not alone, as NHTSA's defects office reveals. One complaint on file quotes an owner: ' Initially, I convinced myself I must have been letting up on the brake when I hit the bump, but when this same thing happened three days ago on slippery, icy roads, I knew for 100 per cent certain I had not let up on the brake.' The Prius brake problem has become a hot topic on numerous websites, but federal investigators are so far declining to comment, although the file is open to the public. Toyota admits it is aware of what a spokesman called 'the behaviour people are reporting.' 'We're investigating those complaints as quickly as possible,' spokesman Mike Michels added. Exactly what is happening is unclear. Like the vehicle's gasoline-electric powertrain, the brakes are also a hybrid technology. During light to moderate braking, the car is slowed by a regenerative system that turns the vehicle's kinetic energy into electricity, which is then stored in a battery. For more aggressive stops, the Prius also has a conventional hydraulic brake system. Some speculation focuses on the regenerative system, and whether a sharp jolt to the vehicle could inadvertently trick vehicle sensors and controls into releasing the brakes. But Michels cautioned Toyota will have to look at a variety of things. 'Rather than throwing out theories, the important thing is to do a scientific analysis. When we have an answer, we will provide it to owners as soon as possible,' he said. The Prius problem is one of the last things Toyota needs right now. Just 12 months ago the automaker was basking in headlines reporting that it had finally beaten arch-rival General Motors to become the world's best-selling automaker. But by March, things didn't look so good. Battered by the recession in the US, its key market, the maker reported its first annual loss in a half century. In August, a California highway patrol officer and three members of his family were killed in a fiery crash when their Lexus went out of control. Two months later, Toyota announced it would recall 3.8 million vehicles, blaming the problem on floor mats that could come loose and jam the accelerator pedal. Another recall impacted 110,000 Tundra pickups which, according to NHTSA, are prone to ' excessive corrosion' so severe their brakes could fail. In all, Toyota will have recalled around four million cars, trucks and crossovers, in the United States, during 2009. That's about four times more than in previous years. And it means Toyota will have recalled more vehicles than any other auto manufacturer for the first time ever. It is looking like 2010 could also be a difficult year. Another probe was recently opened by the government into complaints that 2006 versions of Toyota's Corolla and Matrix models may be prone to unexpected stalling, sometimes at highway speeds. Although Prius sales will only account for about 100,000 units this year, less than seven per cent of Toyota's US total, it has been positioned as the company's halo vehicle due to its environmentally-friendly hybrid technology. But analyst Stephanie Brinley, of AutoPacific, Inc, warned that if it is suddenly seen as dangerous, the damage to Toyota could be huge.

Indian corn export suspended

More than 1,00,000 tonne of Indian corn set to be exported to Southeast Asian countries has been rejected at local ports due to the poor quality of grains, three trade sources told Reuters. After the weakest monsoon in 37 years had reduced crop output, unseasonal rains during the harvesting then damaged grains beyond quality limits for exports, traders said. 'There have been quality issues this time... some export containers have been rejected before loading,' said an official with Kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh, which handles much of India's corn exports. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not discuss the affected volume of exports, but other sources said it was at least 100,000 tonnes. India sells around 2 to 3 million tonnes of corn a year, out of global trade of around 80 million tonnes, and is an important supplier for Asian buyers seeking prompt shipment. 'Large amount of the commodity has been rejected even before exports could be loaded,' said an official with an international grains association, who declined to be identified. Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam are major buyers of Indian corn.

Tea resort is making in Bangladesh

The hospitality industry makes a boom driven by the private sector as an estimated cost of Tk 100 crore has been invested in the country's potential industry, thanks to the growing trend of visiting to tourist destinations. This is the biggest private investment in the sector that designed for setting up a six-storey resort named 'Grand Sultan Tea Resort and Golf' in Srimangal, the country's one of the major tourist destinations. Located at northeast of Dhaka and on way to Sylhet, the all- inclusive luxury resort is being built on 13.2 acres of pristine tea land of Srimangal. The resort would have 167 rooms, 20 suites ( including presidential), ball room, swimming pool, a golf course (nine holes), lake, and a eye- catching tea garden inside it. 'Certainly, the investment is sizeable and would give a further boost to the tourism industry in the country alongside projecting it heavily all over the world,' Khwaja Tipu Sultan, chairman of the GSTRG, a subsidiary of Excursion and Resorts Bangladesh Ltd, told the news agency. To attract foreign tourists, he said, a plantation scheme has been embarked on in Srimangal keeping the hills untouched so the tourists can feast their eyes from the nature's bounty. In the Southern Indian subcontinent, he hoped, this would be the best resort having all requirements as international standard and create employment opportunities for 300 people mostly locals. Back in 1980s, the textile industry was considered as home-based clothing activities and none could imagine that it would be turned into a vigorous one and which is now keeping the wheels of the economy active, said Tipu Sultan. The RMG has developed a lot and now the time has come to work for expansion of the tourism industry, he said and urged the investors to come forward to invest in this sector. A large number of people used to travel to a number of places of tourist attraction every year spending a huge amount of money, he pointed out and said the foreign exchange could be saved by nurturing Bangladesh's tourism sector. Tipu Sultan said a proposal would be forwarded to the government shortly with a plea for 'import tax reduction' as a large amount of necessary goods need to be imported from abroad. Civil aviation and tourism ministry sources said the tourism industry witnessed rapid growth with an investment of Tk 5,000 crore during the last five years and mostly from the private sector. The investments were made largely for the development of hotels, motels, resorts, amusement parks and restaurants at popular tourist destinations in Dhaka, Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Sylhet, Bogra and Khulna that created some 40,000 jobs. Around 40 resorts and 15 amusement parks were built across the country during the said period, said the sources.