Having messed up Air India, once the nation’s pride, with losses touching Rs 46,655 crore in 2007-2013, the government is now thinking of privatising it. Ironically, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh’s proposal comes at a time when the Tatas and Singapore Airlines have joined hands to form a new airline.
One wonders if this is just the minister’s stray thought or it is for real as he clarified later that the government had no intention of pouring in any more funds, and if the airline did not “perform”, privatisation might be the only alternative to “perishing”.
Thirteen years ago the NDA government had wanted to sell a 40 per cent stake in Air India, and a Tata-Singapore Airlines consortium wanted to bid for it.
But this got scuttled, and while Ratan Tata blamed it on “vested interests”, the government till this day hasn’t got to the bottom of it. This is inexplicable.
In fact, this “scuttling” game is very much in operation even today — the NDA and two UPA governments later — if what Singh himself significantly alluded to on Saturday is true.
He was talking about his ministry’s plans to move a Cabinet note for changes to the rule made some years ago — that a domestic carrier needs five years of flying operations and a fleet of 20 aircraft to be eligible for getting permission to fly overseas.
07/10/13 Deccan Chronicle
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One wonders if this is just the minister’s stray thought or it is for real as he clarified later that the government had no intention of pouring in any more funds, and if the airline did not “perform”, privatisation might be the only alternative to “perishing”.
Thirteen years ago the NDA government had wanted to sell a 40 per cent stake in Air India, and a Tata-Singapore Airlines consortium wanted to bid for it.
But this got scuttled, and while Ratan Tata blamed it on “vested interests”, the government till this day hasn’t got to the bottom of it. This is inexplicable.
In fact, this “scuttling” game is very much in operation even today — the NDA and two UPA governments later — if what Singh himself significantly alluded to on Saturday is true.
He was talking about his ministry’s plans to move a Cabinet note for changes to the rule made some years ago — that a domestic carrier needs five years of flying operations and a fleet of 20 aircraft to be eligible for getting permission to fly overseas.
07/10/13 Deccan Chronicle
