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Anushree Varma, who faces action by the regulator for the Durgapur flight incident, has been made an officer on special duty to chairman Ajay Singh.

Editor's note: SpiceJet has moved its chief of flight safety, Anushree Varma, to chairman Ajay Singh’s office as an officer on special duty even as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation investigates an incident that happened on a Durgapur flight last month. The move, says an industry executive in the know, pre-empts a possible suspension of Varma by the industry regulator. On 2 May, a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur encountered severe turbulence, leaving 17 passengers injured, some of them seriously. The aircraft was then cleared to carry on with its next flight. DGCA, which constituted a multi-disciplinary team to investigate the incident, had derostered the cockpit and cabin crew of the flight. It had also suspended a maintenance engineer and the airline’s maintenance control centre in-charge. “Eventually, as the chief of flight safety, the final responsibility was Varma’s,” says an executive from the airline, asking not to be named. Varma replaces her husband, Jai Singh Sadana, as Singh’s OSD. Sadana, two executives confirmed, had resigned earlier this month. “The airline has made Varma the OSD to make it look like …
Anushree Varma, who faces action by the regulator for the Durgapur flight incident, has been made an officer on special duty to chairman Ajay Singh.

Editor's note: SpiceJet has moved its chief of flight safety, Anushree Varma, to chairman Ajay Singh’s office as an officer on special duty even as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation investigates an incident that happened on a Durgapur flight last month. The move, says an industry executive in the know, pre-empts a possible suspension of Varma by the industry regulator. On 2 May, a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur encountered severe turbulence, leaving 17 passengers injured, some of them seriously. The aircraft was then cleared to carry on with its next flight. DGCA, which constituted a multi-disciplinary team to investigate the incident, had derostered the cockpit and cabin crew of the flight. It had also suspended a maintenance engineer and the airline’s maintenance control centre in-charge. “Eventually, as the chief of flight safety, the final responsibility was Varma’s,” says an executive from the airline, asking not to be named. Varma replaces her husband, Jai Singh Sadana, as Singh’s OSD. Sadana, two executives confirmed, had resigned earlier this month. “The airline has made Varma the OSD to make it look like …

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The two new chief executives at Air India and IndiGo come with contrasting reputations but face the same challenge—do their predecessors one better.
A regulatory easing could see the billionaire’s conglomerate move from running airports to owning an airline—an idea he is warming up to, with multiple options open.

A churn in venture capital collides with the fear of missing the AI wave, while the Ajay Singh-led airline’s recurring crises raise deeper questions.
The two new chief executives at Air India and IndiGo come with contrasting reputations but face the same challenge—do their predecessors one better.
A regulatory easing could see the billionaire’s conglomerate move from running airports to owning an airline—an idea he is warming up to, with multiple options open.