Air India returns to Tata group: Chronology of 'Maharaja's' privatisation
India Today
Tata Group founder JRD Tata had originally launched the airline in 1932 as the nation's first carrier, flying mail between Karachi in then-undivided, British-ruled India and Bombay.
After 69 years, Air India on Thursday returned to its founding father, the Tata Group.
The takeover by the salt-to-software conglomerate ends years of failed attempts to sell the money-losing airline that had been kept afloat all these years with thousands of crores of taxpayer money.
Here is a chronology of Air India privatisation plan:
* June 2017: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave in-principle approval to the consideration for strategic disinvestment of Air India and its five subsidiaries. A Panel of Ministers or Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism (AISAM) was constituted for this purpose.
* March 2018: Government invites EoI from investors for buying 76 per cent stake in Air India, remaining 26 per cent to be with the government. The deal would also include 100 per cent in Air India Express and 50 per cent in ground handling arm AISATS. The last date to bid was May 14.
The buyer was required to take Rs 33,392 crore or close to 70 per cent of the beleaguered carrier's debt on its books.
* May 2018: No bids received for Air India.
