Air India Disinvestment: Win-Win Situation For Stakeholders, Govt & Tata Group, Says Jyotiraditya Scindia

Scindia termed this decision of nationalising the airline as a “wrong step” and said that the current disinvestment has set the 69-year old history in perspective.

New Delhi: With the Centre officially handing over Air India to the Tata Group, the conglomerate got its entity back after 69 years on Thursday.

The Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia termed the handover as a “win-win situation” for the stakeholders concerned, the Government and the Tata Group. He further said that this transaction represented a “huge quantum jump” in the civil aviation sector. 

“I think it is a win-win situation for all stakeholders concerned, for Govt and for Tata Group. This transaction represents a huge quantum jump in terms of capabilities in the Civil Aviation sector,” the Minister said. 

Air India, which was started by the Tata Group in 1932, was nationalised in 1953 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. 

Scindia termed this decision of nationalising the airline as a “wrong step” and said that the current disinvestment has set the 69-year old history in perspective. “It represents the culmination of a long process that took almost 20 yrs to conclude. It also sets in perspective a 69-yr-old history which was started on the wrong step by nationalisation of an airline that actually belonged to the private sector, it's going back to the private sector,” he said. 

The Civil Aviation Minister said that almost Rs 20 crore that the airline was incurring as daily losses could be channelised into areas that require social development. "A carrier that had a running loss of Rs 85,000 cr over the last 14 yrs, was earning losses of almost Rs 20 cr a day, that money can be used much more for areas that require social development..." he said. 

The Centre officially handed over Air India to the Tata Group on Thursday as the former transferred 100 percent shares of Air India to Tata’s wholly-owned subsidiary Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control. 

Tata Sons Chairman, N Chandrasekaran said that the group was very happy to have Air India back after 69 years. “We are totally delighted that the takeover process of Air India is complete. We are very happy to have Air India back in the Tata Group. We look forward to working with everyone to create a world-class airline,” he added, as reported by PTI.