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The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has granted airside security clearance to the Noida International Airport (NIA) paving the way for the airport to start operations later this year. The clearance, granted this Monday, is a key requirement for securing the aerodrome licence from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).The airport, which has faced multiple delays — the most recent being April 2025 — is now expected to be inaugurated between late November and early December, according to a report of Times of India. Typically, flight operations at new airports commence four to six weeks after inauguration.Given that the fog season in north India begins by late December, NIA is preparing to handle low-visibility conditions from day one. “NIA is being equipped with CAT-III infrastructure in its first phase, allowing safe aircraft operations even during poor visibility. Calibration and regulatory approvals are currently underway,” an airport spokesperson said.CAT-III certified runways allow landings in low visibility — CAT-IIIA operations when runway visibility is 300-175 metres and CAT-IIIB when it drops to 175-50 metres. The DGCA is expected to test and certify these systems ahead of the airport’s operational launch.NIA, located in the middle of open fields, may face visibility challenges during winter until urban development around the airport improves conditions, much like what happened around other major airports in Indian cities.The airport will initially operate domestic and cargo flights, with a handling capacity of 1.2 crore passengers annually. Terminal 1 is set to be nearly doubled, increasing capacity to 3 crore passengers per annum (CPA). Future phases will see the addition of a second runway and terminal, expanding capacity to 5 CPA and eventually 7 CPA.The Uttar Pradesh government has ambitious long-term plans for NIA, with several more runways and terminals proposed. Delhi’s IGI Airport followed a similar expansion trajectory, with new runways and terminals added decades after commercial operations moved from Safdarjung Airport in 1962 to meet growing air traffic demand.

India’s sovereign gold bond (SGB) scheme – once touted as an innovative solution to curb gold imports – has come under sharp criticism from investor and academic Sanjay Bakshi, popularly known as Fundoo Professor. Taking to X, Bakshi called the scheme “one of the dumbest government borrowing programs in the world,” citing the high effective cost of borrowing and poor risk management that he believes was baked into its design.“The effective cost of borrowing is turning out to be more than 19% per annum,” he wrote, adding that “the individuals who designed this instrument should receive the award for creating one of the dumbest government borrowing programs in the world.”Bakshi drew parallels to the Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) issued by Indian companies in 2008, noting how those issuers suffered massive losses when “the INR’s depreciation and stock prices collapsing” left them unable to hedge currency risk.He highlighted that while defaults are unlikely in the case of SGBs since “the issuer can print money,” the episode still represents “a great example of total ignorance of basic risk management.”This was in response to a separate post by Ritesh Jain, Founder of Pinetree, which explained why the scheme was conceived in the first place.He recalled that back in 2015, India’s trade deficit was rising as households were buying physical gold, putting pressure on the rupee.“Somebody in the finance ministry… decided to create a synthetic instrument to satiate the Indian appetite for gold via a structured product which was only backed by the confidence of Indian govt but did not have real gold to back the bond,” Jain said, describing how Indian households were effectively “going long on gold and on other hand Indian govt was going naked short on gold.”Bakshi’s post sparked reactions from market watchers. One user called it “FCCB 2008 déjà vu,” pointing out that “now govt never hedged GOLD risk. Effective 19% borrowing cost is INSANE for a sovereign instrument meant to reduce imports.”He added that “SGBs turned into a free call option for households, a bleeding liability for state” and warned that “unlike corporations in 2008, the government won’t default, but TAXPAYERS eat the loss… By not backing with physical metal, govt ended naked short. Now bond prices quadruple, fiscal cost balloons.”(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)