MARCH 20259SOLITAIR TO INVEST $25 MILLION IN INDIA'S EXPANDING AIR CARGO SECTORJSW GROUP TO RAISE 1,487 CR FOR EV MANUFACTURING UNIT IN MAHARASHTRASolitAir, Dubai-based cargo operator is set to invest up to USD 25 million in India's domestic air cargo market within its first year of operations, according to its founder and Chief Executive Officer, Hamdi Osman.Osman, a logistics industry veteran with a 30-year tenure at FedEx until 2011, emphasized India's significance in global trade. He stated that India ranks at the top of JSW's new EV facility to produce 10,000 electric buses and 5,000 trucks annually, strengthening India's push towards sustainable and green mobility solutions.SolitAir's long-term vision, which involves expanding its air cargo network to 50 cities.SolitAir is the UAE's only dedicated cargo-agnostic airline, offering express daily scheduled services between Dubai and key trade routes across the Global South. The company commenced operations last year with a Boeing 737 freighter and aims to connect 50 cities within a six-hour flight radius of the UAE."We live in a new era called customer expectation, especially with e-commerce, with the new generation that we see (in this era) people like us will be in demand, and I see it already happening since October when we started," said Hamdi Osman, founder and Chief Executive Officer, SolitAir."So to us, Delhi and Mumbai are very important gateways. Bangalore is another very big gateway. Ahmedabad, where the pharmaceuticals come from the south, is also a very important gateway to us. So we are looking at all four or five gateways to be able to fly in and out of India," he said.Looking ahead, SolitAir aims to expand its operations to Africa, the Middle East Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Indian Subcontinent, and Central Asian nations including Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. A prominent Indian conglomerate, JSW Group, plans to invest around 1,487 crore through a long-term loan to set up a greenfield electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility in Maharashtra. Reports indicate that the plant, to be established by the newly formed JSW Greentech Ltd, will span 100 acres in the Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC) at Bidkin.JSW Group's latest initiative strengthens its presence in the green mobility sector, supporting India's drive for sustainable transport and lower carbon emissions. The new facility is set to improve the group's existence in the fast-growing EV market, strengthening its existing automotive ventures.The production site is set to manufacture 10,000 electric buses and 5,000 electric trucks annually, backed by an integrated EV component ecosystem. The remaining capital expenditure for the project will be financed through capital infusion from JSW Group.Parth Jindal, a key figure in JSW Group's leadership, stated "We are not limiting ourselves to the JV with MG. Our vision is to create a robust ecosystem for electric vehicles in India, and we are actively looking at opportunities to innovate and scale up in this space".
< Page 8 | Page 10 >