Since the Arvind Mayaram panel submitted its report on easing off caps on foreign direct investment (FDI) in select sectors last week, there has been considerable confusion over whether Civil Aviation was one of the sectors mentioned in this report.
Only nine months ago, the Government reversed its 1996 decision and allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49% stake in Indian carriers. Why would it want a second wave of reforms in such a short time, specially when only two foreign airlines have made commitments in all this time? Etihad Airways wants to acquire 24% stake in Jet Airways while AirAsia wants to set up an airline from scratch in partnership with the Tatas and Telestra Tradeplace.
So most babus in the ministries of commerce, finance and even aviation thought this is a mistake and aviation perhaps is not included in the list. Some pointed out that perhaps the move is to align FDI in different aspects of aviation but not raise that for foreign airlines any further.
24/06/13 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post.com
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Only nine months ago, the Government reversed its 1996 decision and allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49% stake in Indian carriers. Why would it want a second wave of reforms in such a short time, specially when only two foreign airlines have made commitments in all this time? Etihad Airways wants to acquire 24% stake in Jet Airways while AirAsia wants to set up an airline from scratch in partnership with the Tatas and Telestra Tradeplace.
So most babus in the ministries of commerce, finance and even aviation thought this is a mistake and aviation perhaps is not included in the list. Some pointed out that perhaps the move is to align FDI in different aspects of aviation but not raise that for foreign airlines any further.
24/06/13 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post.com
