A thick blanket of fog has engulfed Delhi and parts of north India, posing challenges for air and rail traffic linking the national capital with the rest of the country. Delhi airport has issued a dense fog alert as reduced visibility affects hundreds of flights, urging fliers to stay updated about the flight details.

As many as 110 flights have been delayed and 79 flights cancelled at the Delhi airport today, showed flight tracker website flightradar24 this morning, with an average delay of 50 minutes.

Major airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara said bad weather conditions in Delhi and Kolkata may impact flights.

Schools are set to open in the city today after a two-week winter break with physical classes resuming with restricted timings in view of the severe cold conditions.

A similar fog condition disrupted flight and train services in Delhi yesterday with zero visibility reported in the airport area. The minimum temperature was recorded at 7 degrees.

The season’s first cold wave day was on Friday with the temperature dipping to 3.9 degrees Celsius. Saturday’s was coldest night at 3 degre

A passenger aboard an IndiGo flight physically assaulted the aircraft’s pilot while he was making an announcement regarding delays. A video of the assault is now viral on social media.

The shocking episode unfolded as a man in a yellow hoodie abruptly ran up from the last row and hit the new pilot, who had replaced the previous crew due to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms after several hours of delay.

A passenger punched an Indigo capt in the aircraft as he was making delay announcement. The guy ran up from the last row and punched the new Capt who replaced the previous crew who crossed FDTL. Unbelievable ! @DGCAIndia @MoCA_GoI pic.twitter.com/SkdlpWbaDd

— Capt_Ck (@Capt_Ck) January 14, 2024

FDTL, or Flight Duty Time Limitations, are regulations crucial for ensuring the well-being of pilots and flight attendants by mandating adequate rest periods and mitigating fatigue-related safety concerns. The responsibility for establishing FDTL falls under the jurisdiction of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

It is still unverified on which flight this incident took place.

“What does the pilot or cabin crew have to do with the delay? They were just doing their job. Arrest this man, and put him on the no-fly list. Publish his picture so people are aware of his bad temper in public,” wrote one user on X, reacting to the video.

“This person should be booked for assault as well as put on a No Fly List. While @IndiGo6E is in the news for all the wrong reasons and must be taken to task for its shortcomings, but this is totally unacceptable passenger behaviour,” wrote another.

The incident comes against the backdrop of significant disruptions at the Delhi airport, where as many as 110 flights experienced delays and 79 flights were cancelled today, according to the flight tracker website flightradar24. The average delay reached 50 minutes, adding to the growing frustration of passengers already grappling with extensive flight disruptions.

Yesterday, several flights arriving at and departing from the Delhi airport faced severe delays, some exceeding seven or eight hours, primarily due to adverse weather conditions, including dense fog, in North India. Major airlines such as IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Vistara have warned that ongoing bad weather conditions in Delhi and Kolkata could further impact flight schedules.
 

Artificial intelligence poses risks to job security around the world but also offers a “tremendous opportunity” to boost flagging productivity levels and fuel global growth, the IMF chief told AFP.

AI will affect 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said in an interview in Washington, shortly before departing for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

With AI expected to have less effect in developing countries, around “40 percent of jobs globally are likely to be impacted,” she said, citing a new IMF report.

“And the more you have higher skilled jobs, the higher the impact,” she added.

However, the IMF report published Sunday evening notes that only half of the jobs impacted by AI will be negatively affected; the rest may actually benefit from enhanced productivity gains due to AI.

“Your job may disappear altogether — not good — or artificial intelligence may enhance your job, so you actually will be more productive and your income level may go up,” Georgieva said.

Uneven effects

The IMF report predicted that, while labor markets in emerging markets and developing economies will see a smaller initial impact from AI, they are also less likely to benefit from the enhanced productivity that will arise through its integration in the workplace.

“We must focus on helping low income countries in particular to move faster to be able to catch the opportunities that artificial intelligence will present,” Georgieva told AFP.

“So artificial intelligence, yes, a little scary. But it is also a tremendous opportunity for everyone,” she said.

The IMF is due to publish updated economic forecasts later this month which will show the global economy is broadly on track to meet its previous forecasts, she said.

It is “poised for a soft landing,” she said, adding that “monetary policy is doing a good job, inflation is going down, but the job is not quite done.”

“So we are in this trickiest place of not easing too fast or too slow,” she said.

The global economy could use an AI-related productivity boost, as the IMF predicts it will continue growing at historically muted levels over the medium term.

“God, how much we need it,” Georgieva said. “Unless we figure out a way to unlock productivity, we as the world are not for a great story.”

‘Tough’ year ahead

Georgieva said 2024 is likely to be “a very tough year” for fiscal policy worldwide, as countries look to tackle debt burdens accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, and rebuild depleted buffers.

Billions of people are also due to go to the polls this year, putting additional pressure on governments to either raise spending or cut taxes to win popular support.

“About 80 countries are going to have elections, and we know what happens with pressure on spending during election cycles,” she added.

The concern at the IMF, Georgieva said, is that governments around the world spend big this year and undermine the hard-won progress they have made in the fight against high inflation.

“If monetary policy tightens and fiscal policy expands, going against the objective of bringing inflation down, we might be for a longer ride,” she added.

– Concentrating on the job –

Georgieva, whose five-year term at the IMF’s helm is set to end this year, refused to be drawn on whether she intends to run for a second stint leading the international financial institution.

“I have a job to do right now and my concentration is on doing that job,” she said.

“It has been a tremendous privilege to be the head of the IMF during a very turbulent time, and I can tell you I’m quite proud of how the institution coped,” she continued.

“But let me do what is in front of me right now.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)