Air India Transaction "Extremely Challenging": Minister J Scindia To NDTV

Tata-Air India deal: "This has been a landmark transaction under which all the debt has been taken care of and is a truly win-win transaction where everyone is a winner," Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told NDTV

The sale of Air India to Tata group was an "extremely difficult and challenging transaction", Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told NDTV today, a day after the salt-to-software conglomerate formally took over the airline.

"This has been a landmark transaction under which all the debt has been taken care of and is a truly win-win transaction where everyone is a winner. It was an extremely difficult and challenging transaction from an accountancy point of view," Mr Scindia said.

"A number of legal processes also cropped up and all those had to be met under a certain deadline, so that was a big challenge, but we managed to do it all," he said. "I thank all the officials on both sides who worked so hard in the process and ensuring that this transaction is closed successfully. The credit goes to them," Mr Scindia added.

The sale was necessitated by the debt that Air India had been burdened with, the minister said, adding the government had reached a point where it could no longer sustain Air India. "It was just not possible," Mr Scindia said.