Bank of India loans $200 mn to Air India for purchase of 3 Dreamliners

1.    Bank of India loans $200 mn to Air India for purchase of 3 Dreamliners

i. Bank of India (BoI) has become the first Indian bank to extend a bridge loan of $200 million to Air India to finance the purchase of two Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Confirming the development, a senior official of the airline said that the London branch of the bank had come forward to extend funds to acquire the Boeing 787 aircraft.

ii. The funds raised from BoI will be used to acquire the 13th and 14th B-787 aircraft which the airline is to take delivery of.

iii. Like in the past, the state-owned carrier will go in for a sale-and-lease-back mechanism, a common route adopted by several airlines to acquire expensive assets like aircraft. The Boeing website shows that a Boeing 787 retails for $ 211-288 million.

iv. The actual price of the aircraft varies from airline to airline depending on the number of aircraft ordered.

2.    Book entitled The Accidental Prime Minister released

i. The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh authored by Dr. Sanjaya Baru.

ii. A memoir entitled the 'The Accidental Prime Minister: the making and unmaking of Manmohan Singh' authored by Sanjaya Baru was released on 11 April 2014.

iii. The book has highlighted the difference between the good governance and bad governance by comparing UPA regime under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and NDA regime under Atal Viharee Vajpayee. 

iv. The memoir has also highlighted the fact that how the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) suffered from the duality of control and responsibility that affected the overall policy decision making.

v. The writer in the book had also claimed that the key appointments to the cabinet and the PMO were also decided by Sonia Gandhi.

vi. According to him, he wrote the book with a motive to let people know the success and failure of Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of India. 

Note: i. Sanjaya Baru was the media advisor of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh between 2004 and 2008.

ii. The book has been published by Penguin India.

3.    Baroda wins Mushtaq Ali T20 title

i. Baroda beat Uttar Pradesh by three runs to regain the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy in a thrilling last-ball finish at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.

ii. Chasing a challenging target of 145, Uttar Pradesh needed 11 runs off 7 balls but lost the plot as the batsmen at the crease, Praveen Kumar and Upendra Yadav, couldn’t manage to overhaul the target and UP finished at 141 for six.