In December 2012, about three weeks before he would retire as the head of Tata Group, Ratan Tata made a startling admission — he said the salt-to-software conglomerate was unlikely to ever enter the airline business. The reason that drove Tata to his decision was "destructive competition". "Overseas, people go bankrupt or companies go bankrupt. Here they never do, they continue to be sick and still operate. Then they are operating to kill you," he told PTI.
Compelling reasons as these were, the declaration was still unexpected on two counts. One, the Tatas have long held an unequivocal longing for the airline business — there is no better word to describe the group's trysts with the industry owing to a history of interruptions and obstacles — and it seemed it was going to remain that way. Two, the group was turning its back on the sector at a most inopportune time, at least from a regulatory standpoint.
06/10/13 Binoy Prabhakar & Suman Layak/Economic Times
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Compelling reasons as these were, the declaration was still unexpected on two counts. One, the Tatas have long held an unequivocal longing for the airline business — there is no better word to describe the group's trysts with the industry owing to a history of interruptions and obstacles — and it seemed it was going to remain that way. Two, the group was turning its back on the sector at a most inopportune time, at least from a regulatory standpoint.
06/10/13 Binoy Prabhakar & Suman Layak/Economic Times
