Air India Revival:Policy Makers Should Plan

Government has in principle approved the strategic sale of Air India by offering a 76 percent of stake. This paper presents a historical perspective of Air India, gives an overview of privatization experiences of airlines of different countries, stresses that revival would require professionalization of management first and privatization thereafter.. The paper also presents a critical analysis of possible alternatives for its privatization. Unbundling / separating core businesses and others and by the process of strategic sale, the airlines could be privatized. However, it has to be carried out with more rigor and austerity with a set time frame in a transparent manner guarding any situation of distress sale and also having due consideration of social factors.