The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has sought information from IndiGo and aviation regulator DGCA to assess whether the country’s largest airline indulged in unfair business practices following widespread flight cancellations last month, PTI reported citing sources.In early December, IndiGo, which commands over 63% share of the domestic aviation market, faced major operational disruptions that led to the cancellation of thousands of flights before services stabilised. In response, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) curtailed the airline’s winter schedule by 10%.

Sources said the anti-trust regulator has sent a set of queries to IndiGo as part of its preliminary examination of the airline’s conduct. The CCI has also sought information from the DGCA, including data on airfares, to gain a broader understanding of market conditions before deciding its next course of action.The Competition Commission is currently assessing whether there is prima facie evidence that IndiGo violated competition norms by abusing its dominant position in the market. As part of its process, the watchdog first undertakes an initial assessment before ordering a detailed investigation by its Director General (DG), if required.On December 18, the CCI said it had taken cognisance of information filed against IndiGo in connection with the recent flight disruptions across multiple routes. “Based on the initial assessment, the Commission has decided to proceed further in the matter in accordance with the provisions of the Competition Act, 2002,” it said in a release.A day later, CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur told PTI that the regulator had decided to examine the matter further based on the information available. “We have information which has come to us, and based on that information, the matter was placed before the commission. The commission has taken a view that in the initial assessment, it looks like we can go into further detail,” she said.The DGCA has already completed its probe into the operational disruptions, while the CCI continues to evaluate whether IndiGo’s conduct warrants a full-fledged investigation under competition law.

Bangladesh’s national airline will resume nonstop flights between Dhaka and Karachi later this month, restoring direct air links between Bangladesh and Pakistan after a gap of more than 10 years, officials said on Wednesday.Biman Bangladesh Airlines will begin operating the Dhaka–Karachi service from January 29.

Initially, the airline will run two flights a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays, Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported, citing a press release from Biman.According to the schedule shared by the airline, the flight will leave Dhaka at 8 pm local time and reach Karachi at 11 pm. The return service will depart Karachi at midnight and land in Dhaka at 4.20 am.Direct flights between the two cities were last operated in 2012. News portal tbsnews.net, quoting Biman officials, said discussions with Pakistani aviation authorities had been underway for several months to reopen the route. The relaunch has now received formal clearance from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, which has approved Biman to operate flights and use designated air corridors within Pakistani airspace.The move comes amid improving ties between Dhaka and Islamabad following the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in 2024. Since then, both sides have taken steps to rebuild diplomatic, trade and people-to-people relations after years of strained ties. Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan in 1971.However, it remains unclear whether Bangladesh has obtained overflight permission from India, as the shortest air route between Dhaka and Karachi passes through Indian airspace, according to news agency PTI.In a statement, Biman said the new service is expected to make travel between Bangladesh and Pakistan “easier and more convenient” and could also support business, tourism and family travel. The airline added that the flights will be operated using modern aircraft and experienced crews.As per bdnews24.com, the aerial distance between Dhaka and Karachi is around 2,370 km. Currently, passengers travelling between the two cities have to rely on connecting flights via Middle Eastern hubs. Airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, Flydubai, Gulf Air and Air Arabia operate these services, with total travel times ranging from eight to 12 hours, and sometimes extending to over 18 hours due to long layovers.Plans to revive direct air connectivity were first announced in August last year during the visit of Pakistan’s deputy Prime Minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar to Dhaka. His trip marked the first high-level visit from Pakistan to Bangladesh in more than a decade, reported PTI.

US stocks were mixed in early trading on Wednesday, a day after key indices touched fresh record highs, as investors turned cautious ahead of crucial US jobs data and amid rising global uncertainty.The S&P 500 was hovering between gains and losses, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 28 points, or 0.1 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite was also marginally higher by 0.1 per cent. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow had closed at all-time highs in the previous session.US equity futures were mixed before the opening bell, with S&P 500 futures slipping less than 0.1 per cent, Dow futures rising 0.1 per cent and Nasdaq futures down 0.2 per cent.“Global uncertainty continues to deepen,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank in Singapore said in a commentary, referring to geopolitical tensions following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in a weekend operation.Analysts also flagged signs of fatigue in the technology-led rally that has driven markets higher in recent months.“Tech appetite is weaker in Asia,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote. “It increasingly feels like good news is no longer generating the same euphoria seen over the past three years. The tech rally is showing signs of fatigue, supporting rotation trades — a trend further reinforced by geopolitical headlines.”In corporate developments, Warner Bros once again rejected Paramount’s latest takeover bid and urged shareholders to back a rival $72 billion offer from Netflix. Shares of Warner Bros, Paramount and Netflix were largely unchanged following the announcement, which had been widely anticipated.Markets are also focused on a busy week of US labour market data, including job openings data due Wednesday and the government’s monthly jobs report scheduled for Friday. The data will be closely watched by the US Federal Reserve, which is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its meeting later this month after cutting rates three times in late 2025.Inflation remains above the Fed’s 2 per cent target, complicating prospects for further rate cuts despite concerns about a cooling labour market.In the bond market, US Treasury yields moved lower. In commodities, US benchmark crude oil slipped 9 cents to $57.04 a barrel, while Brent crude rose 8 cents to $60.78 a barrel. Gold fell 0.8 per cent and silver dropped 2.4 per cent.European markets were mixed, with France’s CAC 40 down 0.2 per cent, Germany’s DAX up 0.5 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 lower by 0.6 per cent.Asian markets also showed mixed cues. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.1 per cent after hitting a record in the previous session, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.9 per cent and the Shanghai Composite edged up marginally.China late Tuesday announced a ban on exports to Japan of goods that could have military applications, adding to regional tensions after recent Chinese military drills around Taiwan.

Warner Bros. Discovery has once again turned down a takeover offer from Paramount, telling shareholders that the rival bid does not serve their interests and reiterating its recommendation to support a proposed $72 billion transaction with Netflix.In a statement on Wednesday, the company said its board had reviewed Paramount’s latest proposal and concluded that it “is not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders”, urging investors to stick with the Netflix agreement, AP reported.

“Paramount’s offer continues to provide insufficient value, including terms such as an extraordinary amount of debt financing that create risks to close and lack of protections for our shareholders if a transaction is not completed,” Warner Bros. Discovery chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. said. “Our binding agreement with Netflix will offer superior value at greater levels of certainty, without the significant risks and costs Paramount’s offer would impose on our shareholders.”Paramount, controlled by Skydance, has taken its approach directly to shareholders after Warner’s leadership repeatedly rebuffed its overtures. The media group has sweetened its hostile bid to about $77.9 billion for the entire Warner Bros. Discovery company, compared with Netflix’s proposal, which covers only Warner’s studio and streaming assets.Late last month, Paramount announced an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Oracle founder Larry Ellison to back $40.4 billion in equity financing for its offer. It also raised the promised payout to Warner shareholders to $5.8 billion if regulators block the deal, matching the break fee proposed by Netflix.In a letter to shareholders, Warner Bros. Discovery flagged concerns that Paramount’s proposal effectively resembles a leveraged buyout, involving heavy debt and a longer closing timeline of 12 to 18 months, increasing execution risk.The competing offers also differ sharply in scope. Netflix is seeking Warner’s studio and streaming operations, including legacy film and television production units and platforms such as HBO Max. Paramount, by contrast, is bidding for the entire company, which also includes cable and news networks such as CNN and Discovery.If the Netflix transaction goes through, Warner’s news and cable businesses would be spun off into a separate company under a previously announced plan.Any deal involving Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to face intense antitrust scrutiny in the US and overseas, given the size of the companies involved and the potential impact on competition in the global media and streaming industry.

FILE – Former CIA agent Aldrich Ames leaves federal court after pleading guilty to espionage and tax evasion conspiracy charges April 28, 1994, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

When Aldrich Ames finally left for the Elysian Fields, none of America’s major newspapers felt compelled to soften the landing. The New York Times called him what he was: “Aldrich Ames, C.I.A. Turncoat Who Helped the Soviets, Dies at 84.” The Washington Post went further: “the most damaging CIA traitor in agency history.” It was unduly harsh from a paper that once labelled ISIS chief Abu-Bakr Al-Baghddadi an austere scholar. That’s how deeply ingrained hate for Aldrich Ames is in the American psyche, the man who turned out to be a Russia’s most coveted asset during the Cold War. That unanimity tells you something important. Aldrich Ames is not remembered because he was fascinating. He is remembered because he was devastatingly ordinary.

The Alcoholic Traitor

To understand Aldrich Ames, one must first strip away the mythology that usually attaches itself to traitors. He was not glamorous, not especially clever, not driven by grand visions of history. He was, above all else, familiar. A second-generation CIA man who grew up inside the culture of secrecy, hierarchy, and quiet entitlement that defined Cold War intelligence work.His father had served in the agency and struggled with alcoholism, a detail often noted but rarely dwelt upon, even though it would quietly echo through the son’s life. Ames absorbed espionage not as a calling but as an atmosphere, something ambient and unquestioned. By the time he formally joined the CIA, intelligence work already felt less like a mission and more like an inheritance.

What distinguished Ames early on was not promise but tolerance. He was repeatedly flagged as a mediocre field officer, better suited to desk work than clandestine operations. He drank heavily, performed unevenly, and carried himself with a resentful sense that the agency owed him more than it was willing to give. None of this stopped his rise. If anything, it made it easier. The CIA, confident in its own vetting and bound by institutional inertia, mistook longevity for reliability and familiarity for trust.By the early 1980s, Ames had reached a position of extraordinary sensitivity: counter-intelligence chief for the Soviet division. It was a role that granted him access to the deepest secrets of American espionage, including the identities of Soviet officials who had secretly chosen to work for the West. This was not the result of brilliance or strategic insight. It was the product of a system that promoted its own until there was no reason left not to.

The Non-Believer

Ames did not defect in a moment of ideological awakening. He unravelled. By the mid-1980s, his alcoholism had deepened into routine dependence. Vodka was not an indulgence but a stabiliser, a way of managing a professional life he felt increasingly unfulfilled by and a personal life that was collapsing under the weight of debt, divorce, and resentment. Money problems mounted. So did bitterness toward an agency he believed underpaid and underappreciated him. In 1985, with startling simplicity, he walked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington and offered himself. There was no gradual courtship, no coded overture. He handed over names, identified himself, and asked to be paid. The brazenness of the act was matched only by the speed with which it escalated.What followed was not a calculated long-term strategy but a panic-driven collapse of restraint. Ames feared exposure, particularly from the very Soviet assets he was responsible for protecting. His solution was annihilation. He betrayed them all, delivering to Moscow a comprehensive map of Western intelligence inside the Soviet system.Alcohol played a critical role here, not as an excuse but as an enabler. It dulled caution, eroded empathy, and encouraged the kind of compartmentalisation that allowed Ames to treat betrayal as a logistical problem rather than a moral one. He did not frame his actions as treason so much as transaction. Secrets became currency. Loyalty became irrelevant.The KGB understood what it had acquired. Ames was not a source of insight so much as volume, a bureaucratic funnel through which decades of American intelligence flowed directly into Soviet hands. For that, he was paid handsomely. Millions of dollars arrived, and with them came the lifestyle that Ames believed validated his choices.

The Damage

The damage was immediate and catastrophic. As Ames’s disclosures reached Moscow, Soviet counter-intelligence moved swiftly. Western agents began disappearing. Some were arrested, others interrogated, and at least ten were executed. Networks that had taken decades to build collapsed almost overnight. The CIA lost its most valuable human intelligence channels at a moment when understanding the Soviet system was more important than ever.Beyond the human cost, which remains the most damning aspect of the case, Ames inflicted long-term strategic damage. The CIA’s picture of Soviet capabilities and intentions became distorted, increasingly reliant on technical intelligence and disinformation fed back through compromised channels. Policy debates at the highest levels of the US government were shaped by intelligence that was no longer trustworthy.Ames, confronted with the consequences, remained disturbingly detached. He insisted that espionage itself was overrated, that spy networks were theatrical exaggerations rather than essential instruments of statecraft. It was a view that conveniently absolved him of responsibility for the deaths that followed his actions. If the game was meaningless, then the pieces were expendable.This moral emptiness is what distinguishes Ames from ideological traitors of earlier eras. The Cambridge Five believed they were serving history. Ames believed nothing of the sort. His betrayal was not animated by conviction but by contempt, a corrosive belief that the system itself did not deserve loyalty.

Banality of Evil

What makes the Ames case especially damning is not how clever he was, but how long it took to notice what was obvious.By the late 1980s, his lifestyle had become impossible to ignore. He purchased a house in cash, drove a Jaguar, wore tailored suits, and paid for cosmetic dental work, all on a salary that could not plausibly support such spending. Colleagues noticed. Reports were filed. Investigations were opened and then allowed to stall.The CIA’s internal security apparatus moved with lethargy, hamstrung by understaffing, bureaucratic caution, and a culture that resisted the idea that one of its own could be responsible for such damage. At one point, the investigation was effectively paused when the sole officer assigned to it went off for training.It was only when the FBI took over that the pieces fell into place. Surveillance confirmed unexplained meetings and suspicious behaviour. Financial records told a story the agency had long refused to confront. In February 1994, Ames was arrested outside his home, ending nearly a decade of uninterrupted betrayal.When confronted, he pleaded guilty and accepted a life sentence. Even then, he downplayed the impact of his actions, insisting that the intelligence world exaggerated its own importance. It was a final act of deflection, consistent with a man who had spent years convincing himself that nothing truly mattered beyond his own survival.

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday took a dig at the western hypocrisy during India’s military response under Operation Sindoor, declaring India does not need the West’s free advice. “Why don’t you look at your own region for levels of violence?” he remarked.Speaking to members of the Indian community in Luxembourg, Jaishankar recalled that several nations offered unsolicited advice to the country during Operation Sindoor, India’s military response launched in May 2025 after the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.“Sometimes you hear people say, like it happened during Operation Sindoor. Now if you ask them, say, “oh really you’re worried, why don’t you look at your own region? And ask yourself, what are the levels of violence there.”“How much risks have been taken, how much worry the rest of us have about what you are doing. But that’s the nature of the world. People, what they say is not what they do,” he added.Jaishankar further underlined that India will engage differently with different actors. “So those who are willing to work with us and be helpful, positive, we have to deal with them in that way,” he said, adding “those who do the kind of things which Pakistan does, we have to deal with it in a different way.”Jaishankar also took a jibe on how the western countries often advise others on handling their internal or regional conflicts, suggesting such commentary is frequently detached from ground realities and offered without much thought.“Now, to what extent do the developments in the rest of the world affect it? It’s hard to say. People sitting far away will say things, sometimes with application of mind, sometimes not, sometimes with self-interest, sometimes carelessly. That will happen.”“I can tell you, whatever you might say, in this day and age, countries are more, I don’t want to say they become more selfish, but they will do things only if it is of direct benefit to them. They’ll offer you free advice. If something happens, say, no, please don’t do that. It worries us if there is tension,” he added.US President Donald Trump had repeatedly claimed that Washington mediated the May 2025 India-Pakistan ceasefire, an assertion India has rejected. New Delhi has maintained that the military pause followed a request from Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations to his Indian counterpart, not third-party intervention.Further on the Venezuela crisis, Jaishankar said India’s primary concern is the safety of the people following US military operations there.“We are concerned about the developments, but we would really urge all the parties involved to now sit down and come to a position which is in the interest of the well-being and safety of the people of Venezuela, because at the end of the day, that is our concern,” Jaishankar said.“We would want Venezuela as a country with whom, over many, many years, we’ve had very good relations. So we would like the people to come out well, whatever the direction of events,” he added.His remarks came after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in Caracas and flown out of the country during a joint operation involving intelligence agencies and US law enforcement.

Markets regulator Sebi has extended the timeline for implementing an additional incentive structure for mutual fund distributors to March 1, allowing more time for asset management companies to put systems in place, according to a circular issued on Wednesday.The revised framework, aimed at encouraging onboarding of new individual investors from B-30 cities and new women investors across all cities, was earlier scheduled to come into effect from February 1, 2026. B-30 cities refer to locations beyond the top 30 cities under the mutual fund industry’s classification, PTI reported.Sebi said the decision to defer implementation followed feedback from the industry, which flagged operational challenges in ensuring a smooth rollout of the new incentive mechanism.Under the revised framework, distributors will be eligible for an additional commission of 1 per cent on the first lump-sum investment or the first-year systematic investment plan (SIP) amount, capped at Rs 2,000, provided the investor remains invested for at least one year. This incentive will be paid over and above existing trail commissions and will be funded from the 2 basis points already earmarked by AMCs for investor education.However, the regulator has specified that no dual incentives will be allowed for the same woman investor from B-30 cities. The additional commission will also not apply to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), certain fund-of-funds schemes, and very short-duration products such as overnight, liquid, ultra-short and low-duration funds.“The mutual fund distributors shall be eligible for additional commission (for bringing) — new individual investors (new PAN) from B-30 cities, at the mutual fund industry level; and new women individual investors (new PAN) from both top 30 and B-30 cities,” Sebi said.Earlier, Sebi had put in place a framework to incentivise distributors for mobilising investments from beyond the top 30 cities. However, citing concerns over possible misuse and based on industry feedback, the regulator decided to revise the incentive structure to better align it with the objective of expanding the investor base while ensuring safeguards.