Arvind Jadhav, a 1978-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Karnataka, has been appointed full-time chairman and managing director of National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), the Air India parent, for three years.
Jadhav, who is likely to take charge on Monday, will take over from EK Bharatbhushan, a joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry who was asked to head the national carrier for a few days till a permanent CMD was appointed.
Jadhav joins at a time Air India is faced with major challenges. The airline has accumulated losses of over Rs 4,300 crore and its integration with Indian Airlines has been delayed. It is under pressure to maintain its market share on both international and domestic routes and has a large employee to aircraft ratio when compared with its competitors.
Worse, the state-owned corporation came under a cloud as a result of the sudden exit of its previous chairman, Raghu Menon, much before his tenure was to end. Insiders say he had serious differences with the civil aviation ministry on issues relating to the future of his company's joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd for ground handling.
The ministry also raised questions on his ability to push through the integration of the two airlines and said he was behind schedule on this. Jadhav is currently principal secretary, Infrastructure Development Department, government of Karnataka. He has had a tryst with the aviation sector as a member of the board of Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL) — the newly built airport run by a private consortium and the government. The Karnataka government and Jadhav played a crucial role in the bringing the project under a private-public partnership (PPP) scheme. Jadhav is also said to have been instrumental in modernisation and upgrade of 13 minor airports and the setting up of new ones as in Gulbarga under the PPP scheme.
Ministry sources said Jadhav had been shortlisted during the previous selection process for the CMD but was pipped to the post by none other than Raghu Menon.
A graduate in English, economics and history from Kanpur University, he has a postgraduate diploma in international trade from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. He also holds an MBA degree from Australia. Jadhav started his service in 1980 from Mysore as an assistant commissioner in the land revenue management division. He has also served at the Centre as joint secretary in the Ministry of Power and as Chief Vigilance Officer in the petroleum ministry.
His peers say he is a doer but keeps a low profile. "He is well connected and will be aggressive in bringing changes, but the question is whether he will be able to get Nacil out of the woods and take tough decisions.”
