A historic moment

Air India privatisation is a milestone in India's reforms

Air India has officially been handed over to Tata Group, ending its decades of public ownership. The airline, before it was nationalised, had of course been one of the jewels of the Tata empire, and former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata in particular never seemed to have given up the quest to regain the company that had been set up as Tata Airlines in 1932. The Tatas won the airline at an auction in October with a bid of about Rs 18,000 crore as enterprise value, including taking on Rs 15,300 crore of the airline’s debt. The airline, by some