&w=3840&q=100)
Statsguru: What explains cracks in infrastructure at India's major airports
For the country's major airports, repair & maintenance expenditures declined year-on-year in proportion to their aeronautical revenues in FY24. However, there was a huge variation in this share: While the Airport Authority of India (AAI) spent over a fourth of its total aeronautical revenues during the year, Hyderabad spent just around nine per cent. The trend was mixed at two major overseas airports (Chart 2).
Expenditure on building maintenance for the country's major airports is less than 7 per cent of their aeronautical revenues. The variation was too high – from 0.9 per cent to 6.8 per cent – in FY24 (Chart 3).
Trends shown in Charts 2 and 3 are despite an increase in the share of revenues from user development fee (UDF) in aeronautical revenues across airports. However, in Delhi's case, it is much less than Hyderabad's and AAI's (Chart 4).
Half of repair & maintenance expenditure was allocated to plant & machinery at most airports, with the AAI being an exception. On the other hand, buildings, at most, accounted for one-fourth of repair & maintenance spending in FY24 (Chart 5).
Since the Covid-19 pandemic struck India in 20202, government-initiated audits and inspections of airports have been on the rise (Chart 6).
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Hindustan Times
9 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families
Meazler earns $37,500 a year, working for a nonprofit that helps connect new mothers with services. She owns her own home, a small house with blue siding and a backyard in a quiet neighborhood outside Binghamton. Some nights, Meazler, 43, wonders how far it's gotten her. She hasn't been able to afford to take the girls, ages 7, 13 and 22, on a real vacation for years. She winces when her middle child, Emmi, asks why she can't make 'normal dinners' like other families, referring to the home cooked meals Emmi eats with friends instead of the cheaper frozen food her mom serves. Meazler tells her they don't have money like other families. 'We're fine, Mom,' Emmi said, plopped down on the living room couch after basketball practice. 'We are fine,' Meazler smiled. Away from her children, Meazler's blue eyes fill with tears. Her credit cards are maxed out. She's constantly behind on her cellphone bills. She usually pays her $865 mortgage late, like she did around Christmas, to have enough cash to buy her girls extras. In December, she got a letter from the county social services department approving her for $253 in monthly food assistance. 'Sometimes I think, 'Where did I go wrong?'' she said. Nearly 10 million American children are living in poverty, the most since 2018, according to the latest Census Bureau figures from 2023. Tens of millions more—like the Meazler kids—are precariously close. Their families have been pushed to the edge by a storm of economic factors, including the expiration of Covid-era relief programs and the impacts of inflation on food and housing. The strain is expected to be worsened by cuts to federal spending on aid programs, including food benefits and Medicaid. President Trump on July 4 signed legislation passed by Congress that reduces funding and tightens work requirements for government assistance, and will likely result in less food aid and millions losing health coverage. Lisa Meazler, here with her daughters Emmi and Averi, has an income above the official poverty level but struggles financially. Even before the new cuts, several markers show that households with children are falling behind, though statistics around poverty have been complicated by the upheaval the pandemic brought to jobs and living arrangements, and the unprecedented federal aid distributed in response. The share of families with children living in poverty jumped to 12.9% in 2023, the most recent year available, after plummeting to a record low of 5.6% in 2021, driven down by temporary pandemic programs like the expanded Child Tax Credit and extra unemployment insurance, according to census data compiled by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. Poverty for all ages has inched up, but no other age demographic has seen a sharper rise in poverty between 2021 and 2023 than children, data compiled by the center show. The Columbia center used the census's supplemental poverty measure, a metric that accounts for a family's income after taxes, government benefits and location. Many economists view it as a more accurate way to examine families' financial well-being than the census's official poverty measure, an older calculation that relies on pretax income and is used to determine eligibility for public assistance. (The older calculation typically shows even higher rates of child poverty.) Millions more kids live in households that are just barely scraping by. Around 35 million kids—nearly half of all in the U.S.—lived in households under the line that many economists view as the bottom rung of the middle class, according to 2023 census data compiled by Luke Shaefer, a University of Michigan economist who studies child poverty. That number of children is the highest in five years, Shaefer said. For a family of two adults and two kids, the dividing line is a maximum net income of about $75,000, including government benefits. 'For every one child below the poverty line, there are two to three more above it but still too close for comfort,' Shaefer said. They're in 'families whose lives are a constant grind of working hard but never making it. The gains we made during the pandemic were lost.' Meazler, right, sorted clothing donations with co-workers at the Mothers & Babies nonprofit. Pressure on food banks The loss is clear in Broome County, in south-central New York state, where postindustrial cities like Binghamton are flanked by hills and woodlands. More than a quarter of the county's 36,100 children were living in poverty in 2022, an increase of nearly 50% from 2021, according to census modeling estimates used for counties. The rate dipped in 2023, but despite that, nonprofits helping families under financial duress have seen demand soar to nearly unprecedented levels over the past year. The Food Bank of the Southern Tier received more than 92,000 requests for food for children in the county through three of its main local programs in 2024, about 9,000 more than in 2023, and nearly double the number in 2019. The Broome County Urban League ran out of its 2024 rental assistance money for families last November, weeks earlier than usual, unable to keep pace with need. At Mothers & Babies, the private nonprofit where Meazler works, referrals to help provide new moms with everything from cribs to baby clothing doubled in a year. Meazler sees herself in many of the mothers she meets with—working jobs that barely cover the basics anymore. Up late, trying to figure out which government aid programs might help and which bills they can push off. Unable to save a dime. Situated about 70 miles south of Syracuse, with a population of roughly 196,000, Broome County has had high child poverty rates over the past decade. It wasn't always this way. IBM was born here, when three of the earliest information processing companies merged in 1911 and established headquarters in the village of Endicott amid neighborhoods of Italian immigrants who worked in a local shoe factory. With a sprawling campus near the Susquehanna River, IBM provided generations with manufacturing jobs and financial stability. The company's presence in Broome County began waning in the 1990s, as it moved production elsewhere and laid off workers. The company sold its campus in 2002, while continuing to lease some of the buildings. That ended in 2023, and demolition of the company's gray, hulking office buildings in Endicott—long vacant—began on Dec. 31. 'IBM's closing threw the local economy into a depression,' said Komla Dzigbede, who chairs the Public Administration and Policy department at Binghamton University, part of the New York state school system. 'In many ways, it has never fully recovered.' Still, there have been signs of an economic resurgence, he said. Using 2023 dollars, the median household income in Broome County, for example, increased to an estimated $63,590 in 2023 from $59,044 in 2013. The demolition of IBM buildings at the Endicott manufacturing complex in June. Luxury student housing in Binghamton. The university is now the county's main economic engine, along with several hospitals, and has increased its annual enrollment by about 2,000 students over the past decade while also adding several hundred employees. Rents have risen and luxury apartments added as landlords cater to professionals and students from elsewhere who can afford to pay more. Rents in Broome County have nearly doubled over the past several years, according to Zillow, from $694 in May 2018 to $1,292 in May 2025 for a 'typical' apartment, which Zillow defines as the average of the middle-third of rents on the market. In downtown Binghamton, a high-rise offers luxury housing for students. As it did elsewhere, temporary Covid benefits briefly helped cut the child poverty rate in Broome County in 2021, dropping it to a decade low of 17.6%, according to census figures. The expanded Child Tax Credit, for example, included in the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan in 2021, gave working families around the country an extra $1,000-$1,600 per child, depending on age. The credit expired at the end of that year. The next year, Broome County saw its child poverty rate jump to 27% before dipping back down to 19.8% in 2023. Local social service groups said they weren't certain what drove down the rate. On the ground, they said they are seeing more families struggling. 'We are dealing with a broken system where minimum wage does not come close to covering living expenses for a family,' said Christie Finch, deputy director of Mothers & Babies. 'Many families are choosing between paying the rent and buying groceries or paying for heat.' Last year, her group doled out clothing and baby items to 174 families, up from 86 in 2023. And in the first half of 2025, her group assisted 151 families with food aid, compared with 90 families during the same period in 2024. Keeping up with inflation The county had an average unemployment rate of just 4% last year. Longtime social service workers said they've been struck by families whose salaries have risen, yet are struggling more than ever. Wages have gone up for low-income earners, as with other economic groups, said Abigail Wozniak, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Federal data, however, show the poorer households have been hit harder by inflation over the past four years, according to analysis by Jeff Horwich, senior economics writer at the bank. Low-income earners spend a greater portion of their money on housing and food, which have both seen prices rise dramatically, noted a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Some working families in Broome County are now leaning more on public assistance for help. But if their salaries increase, even slightly, their eligibility for state and federal assistance could be reduced. Jennifer Lesko, chief executive of the Broome County Urban League, said her caseworkers are seeing clients lose some of their food or housing support after getting raises or overtime shifts. 'It just boggles my mind when you have someone who makes just a few dollars more during a pay period and then loses benefits right away,' she said. 'We are seeing it much more frequently now.' Felica Allen, a 39-year-old nursing assistant and single mom, works the graveyard shift in the emergency room at UHS Wilson Medical Center near Binghamton before returning home each morning to care for her four children, ages 3, 12, 14 and 17. A fifth, 22, moved out in September. Allen's $20 an hour salary rose last year to $22.90, which amounted in 2024 to about $39,000 for the hours she worked, including bonuses and overtime. That's more money than she's ever made and not far above the federal government's supplemental poverty threshold for her family size. It still doesn't come close to covering her expenses, she said, and her financial situation has worsened despite earning more. Allen, with Nishayia at a park, said she makes more money now than ever but that it isn't enough to cover her family's expenses. Before Christmas, a letter from the county social services department arrived, saying her monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, the official name of the federal food assistance program, were being slashed from nearly $1,000 to $564 because she's now making more in wages. Federal food aid is calculated through a formula that considers income and family size. 'I literally went to work in tears that night I found out,' Allen said. 'Like how do I feed my family now when I was barely making ends meet before?' Last summer, she moved from a two-bedroom home to a five-bedroom for $1,950 through Section 8, a federal housing program for low-income people, which covers $750 of the rent. Allen pays the remaining $1,200. After taxes, she takes home between $2,400 and $2,600 a month based on her hours. Monthly expenses add up: $162 for the car she is still paying off; $287 for car insurance; $400 for phone and internet; and electricity bills that can run more than $500 because of back payments. Whatever Allen has left over, she spends on toilet paper, toothpaste, household cleaning supplies, gas and groceries. In March, she decided to reduce her official weekly work hours from 32 to 26 so she could get back $220 in food benefits. She has managed to take on extra shifts when they pop up at the hospital, to make up the difference in salary. Even with her raise, the rent is perpetually late, and Allen borrows from her sister, aunt and closest friends to cover it. The fathers of her children aren't involved in their lives, and she has little contact with them, Allen said. She said she feels trapped in an interminable game of whack-a-mole, figuring out which bills she needs to pay right away and which she can get away with putting off. In recent months, the utility threatened to cut off her power because she'd fallen so far behind on her bill. 'I don't want any debts. I don't want to owe anybody anything,' she said. Allen took her daughter Nishayia to the park on a day off in June. Allen loves the bustle of the ER; it's a welcome distraction from her own hardships. She's on the verge of completing her GED and dreams of enrolling in a program to become a registered nurse. But she wonders when she'd find the time. She gets back from the hospital at 7:30 a.m., and shuttles her children to school. Her 3-year-old stays with her, and Allen tries to close her eyes when the toddler naps. She readies dinner, gets the kids to bed and heads off to work before her shift starts again at 11 p.m. Her 17-year-old daughter, Malajia, watches the younger children at night while she's gone. Allen said she feels pain in the things she can't afford and grapples with depression. Aside from a few Christmas gifts she got for her kids through charity programs such as Toys for Tots, she had to wait until February when her tax refund arrived to afford holiday presents. She used some of the $8,000 she got back this year, mostly from a tax credit that incentivizes low-income people to work, to buy a new PlayStation, gaming chair and gift cards for her kids. The rest she used to buy clothes for her youngest and to try to catch up on rent and bills. Meazler, who works at the nonprofit for new mothers, also had plans for her tax refund this year. After mortgage payments, car repairs and other expenses, she used a portion to take the girls to visit her ailing mother in Georgia, whom she hadn't seen in two years. Meazler still wasn't able to buy Emmi the bigger bed she's been asking for, or a scooter like her friends have. She said she is cordial with the father of her two youngest, who takes the girls from time to time, but prefers to only ask him for money in an emergency. Her 22-year-old recently got a part-time job working at Subway for $15.50, the minimum wage in much of New York state. The trip to Georgia was something the family could look forward to. Meazler set aside $800 from the refund to pay for a rental car and gas for the 2,000 mile round trip drive. One morning, during their weeklong stay at her mom's house, Meazler took the girls to Panama City Beach, a few hours away. They bought $5 boogie boards from a Five Below store and ate pizza. Meazler remembered smiling as she watched her girls laugh and toss a football through the surf until it got dark. For once, her troubles seemed far away. Days after driving home to Endicott, her mother was hospitalized with renal failure. Meazler had to take off work and spent the last of her tax refund on a flight back to Georgia. She quickly fell behind again on her mortgage payments for April and May. 'It feels like I've been in survival mode my whole life. Worked and worked and worked,' she said. 'Worked for nothing.' Write to Dan Frosch at Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families
The Hindu
39 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Tariff war will worsen economy more than COVID-19 pandemic: Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal
Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal has warned that Kerala needs to prepare well to tackle the 'tariff war' looming over the economy, propelled by the recent tariff policies of the United States and other global players. Mr. Balagopal was speaking after inaugurating a two-day seminar 'Post-COVID Development Challenges and Response: Kerala through the lens of State budgets' organized by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT) in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday (August 5, 2025). 'It has to be examined how these policies impact the Indian economy and specifically Kerala, whose exports cover multiple sectors,' he said. The Finance Minister suggested that the academic community organise a roundtable discussion on the implications of these policies for India and Kerala to generate clarity on what lies ahead for the economy. 'Dangerous situation' ahead Mr. Balagopal said he perceived a 'dangerous situation' ahead, referring to recent demands that 'India should reduce its tariffs.' 'The tariff war looming over us will worsen our economy further,' he said, adding that the influx of imports at low tariffs would create an economic situation 'much worse than the COVID-19 pandemic.' M.A. Oommen, eminent economist and Distinguished Professor at GIFT who chaired the session, underscored the need for Kerala to focus on the protection and conservation of its rich biodiversity, tackle the spectre of corruption and nurture the public sector enterprises. Mr. Oommen lauded Mr. Balagopal for an 'excellent linear programming exercise' in steering Kerala's economy through a period of fiscal stress. Pointing out that major challenges lay ahead for the economy in the years ahead, he urged Left democratic forces to rise up to the occasion. C. Balagopal, chairman, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), said current policies and public finance constraints should be understood within the framework of whether government policies are promoting the growth of value addition in sectors, and what needs to be done to generate more value addition in them. 'How the sectoral distribution of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) and the State meeting total factor productivity (TFP) are pertinent questions,' he said. Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) K.R. Jyothilal, GIFT director K.J. Joseph and GIFT registrar Saraf A. also spoke. Senior economists and planning experts are attending the seminar which focusses on development issues that Kerala has been facing since the pandemic.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
All Time Plastics IPO to open on Thursday: 10 key things to know from RHP before you subscribe to ₹401 crore issue
All Time Plastics IPO in focus: All Time Plastics initial public offering (IPO) is scheduled to kick off for subscription on Thursday, August 07, and will remain open until Monday, August 11. The company aims to raise ₹ 400.60 crore through the offering, which is a combination of a fresh issue of 1.02 crore shares aggregating to ₹ 280 crore and an offer for sale of 0.44 crore shares aggregating to ₹ 120.60 crore. The IPO price band is set at ₹ 260 to ₹ 275 per share. Retail investors can apply for a minimum of 54 shares in one lot and can apply for up to 13 lots. At the upper end of the IPO price band, ₹ 275 apiece, retail investors are required to make a minimum investment of ₹ 14,850 per lot. About the company: Established in 1971, All Time Plastics Limited (ATPL) is an Indian company specializing in the manufacturing of plastic houseware products. It primarily operates as a white-label manufacturer, producing consumerware for customers to market under their own brand names. Accounts for 26% of India's total plastic houseware exports: In FY2024, the company exported products worth approximately USD 57 million, representing around 26% of India's total plastic houseware exports, according to its RHP citing a Technopak Report. ATPL primarily exports its products to retailers in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Domestically, it sells to modern trade retailers, super distributors (who sell to distributors), and distributors (who supply general trade stores). Diverse product portfolio with 1,600+ SKUs across eight categories: As of March 31, 2024, the company had 1,608 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across eight categories: Prep Time (kitchen tools for preparing ingredients), Containers (food storage containers), Organization (miscellaneous storage containers), Hangers (various types of hangers), Meal Time (kitchenware), Cleaning Time (cleaning equipment), Bath Time (bathroom products), and Junior (child-friendly tableware and cutlery). During FY2024, FY2023, and FY2022, ATPL launched 553, 609, and 414 new SKUs, respectively. Rapid growth in the plastic houseware market: The global plastic houseware market grew at a CAGR of approximately 4.6%, from USD 24.3 billion in 2019 to USD 27.8 billion in 2022. In 2023, the market was valued at around USD 29 billion and is projected to reach USD 37 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of about 6.3% between 2023 and 2027. This growth has been driven by the surge in online shopping—accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic—as consumers increasingly opt for the convenience of purchasing houseware products online. Urbanization and the shift toward nuclear families have further supported this trend. Prep Time – largest revenue contributor: The Prep Time category, which includes chopping boards, strainers, mixing bowls, colanders, measuring tools, spatula and spreader sets, and orange squeezers, contributed 38.19% of total revenue in FY2024. Containers accounted for 32.87%, while Organization contributed 10.05%. IKEA remains the largest customer: In FY2024, ATPL exported products to 28 countries. The company has long-standing relationships with major global retailers, including IKEA, Asda Stores Limited (Asda), Michaels Stores Inc., and Tesco Plc. Domestically, its products are sold through retailers such as Spencer's Retail Limited. ATPL and its acquired entity, Pyramid Plastics, have been supplying IKEA—its largest customer—for over 26 fiscal years. Asda, its second-largest customer in FY2024, has been partnered for over 13 years, followed by Michaels (3 years) and Tesco (16 years). Financial performance: Revenue from operations increased from ₹ 4,011.52 million in FY2022 to ₹ 5,128.53 million in FY2024, a CAGR of 13.07%. EBITDA grew from ₹ 578.76 million to ₹ 971.01 million during the same period, reflecting a CAGR of 29.53%. Net profit rose from ₹ 245.35 million to ₹ 447.90 million, a CAGR of 35.11%. Key risks: The company is highly dependent on its top four customers, with the largest accounting for 60.36% of revenue in FY2024. Moreover, it does not have long-term sales agreements with most of its customers. ATPL derived 94.04%, 91.27%, and 89.73% of its revenue from its top five product categories in FY2024, FY2023, and FY2022, respectively. Objectives of the issue: The company intends to utilize the proceeds from the public issue primarily for the prepayment or repayment of certain outstanding borrowings, the purchase of equipment and machinery for its Manekpur facility, and for general corporate purposes aimed at supporting future growth and operational efficiency. Listing and allotment details: The allotment of shares is expected to be finalized on August 12, 2025, with a tentative listing on both the BSE and NSE scheduled for Thursday, August 14, 2025. Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
