Air India draws a blank: Insistence on govt control dooms privatisation

As the national carrier gets zero bids, industry says the govt's decision to hold 24% in the airline was a spoilsport

In a blow to the government’s privatisation drive in aviation, no bidder showed up on the last day of submitting expression of interest to buy a controlling stake in Air India. With that, the disinvestment of the national carrier, which had kicked off last June following Cabinet approval, seemed to be grounded for now. The proposal will now go back to the group of ministers (GoM) overseeing the process for a possible review of norms. With the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 2019, a fresh process may not be easy to roll out, people in the know said, while businesses