Business reformer: Praful Patel

Industrialist-Politician, Praful Patel runs the civil aviation ministry with the same hard-nosed business sense he uses to steer his Rs 500-crore CeeJay Group. Patel, who owns one of India’s biggest bidi and tobacco-derivatives businesses, might be referred to as Vidarbha’s Bidi King, but he is also king of the Indian skies for now.
Within months of taking charge, Patel negotiated a deal with the Left to hike the FDI cap in the domestic airlines sector from 40% to 49%. That was only the starting round. Braving stiff opposition, he also managed to privatise the Delhi and Mumbai airports—the two busiest in the country—to enable major expansion of facilities and induction of large investment along with the private sector management. Also to Patel’s credit is the acquisition of new aircraft for Indian and Air-India coming through after being caught in red tape for years. He has successfully merged the two government carriers to create a huge airline that can match rivals Singapore Airlines and Emirates in terms of fleet size. Patel personally piloted the merger, arguing that critical mass is necessary to take on competition from private sector rivals.
Patel has also successfully opened up international routes for private sector airlines and is now trying to remove the five-years-of-operation criterion that is necessary for Indian carriers to fly overseas. With Patel’s guidance, India has inked ‘open skies’ pacts with the US and the UK, and is in the process of signing a similar ASEAN pact.
04/10/07 Economic Times

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Categories: General Aviation Oct 2007