Ajay Singh: SpiceJet’s Ajay Singh became the President of ASSOCHAM, once gave a new flight to the dying airline.
New Delhi: SpiceJet airline CMD Ajay Singh will be the new president of industry body ASSOCHAM. Ajay Singh is a first generation entrepreneur. He will replace Sumant Sinha whose tenure has come to an end. Sanjay Nair, an expert in global financial markets and founder and chairman of Sorin Investment Fund, will be the Senior Vice President of ASSOCHAM. Ajay Singh studied MBA from Cornell University, USA after engineering from IIT Delhi. He is also the President of the Boxing Federation of India and the Vice President of the International Boxing Association. The credit goes to Ajay Singh for rescuing SpiceJet which was on the verge of sinking.
SpiceJet was started in 1984. Industrialist SK Modi started private taxis in the country. In 1993 it was named MG Express but the very next year i.e. 1994 it was renamed Modiluft. In the year 2004, Ajay Singh acquired it and named it SpiceJet. In those days, plane tickets were very expensive but SpiceJet gave people the opportunity to travel by air at a low cost. In 2010, the Maran brothers of Sun Group bought 37.7 per cent stake in it. He later increased his stake in the company to 58.46 per cent. But in January 2015, he sold his entire stake to Ajay Singh after the company’s financial condition deteriorated.
SpiceJet salvaged
When the Maran brothers bought SpiceJet in 2010, the price of jet fuel was Rs 40 a liter which reached Rs 77 in 2013. But in February 2015 its price was reduced to Rs 36 per liter and in February 2016 to Rs 35. Fuel accounts for almost half of the operating cost of any airline. This is the reason that the reduction in the cost of jet fuel had a big hand in the turnaround of SpiceJet. SpiceJet paid Rs 2,410 crore to oil companies in 2014-15 and Rs 1,392 crore in 2015-16. In this way the company was transformed by saving fuel.
Expressing happiness on being elected as the President of ASSOCHAM, Ajay Singh said that it is a matter of pride for him to lead the 103 year old organization. He said that these are challenging times. When the global economy is suffering hiccups, the Indian economy is moving ahead strongly. The danger of recession is visible in the big countries of the world and India’s economy is growing at a speed of 6.5-7 percent. He said that ASSOCHAM will continue to work with the Central and State Governments, academia, economists and corporate leaders to address the challenges ahead.
