Grounding Air India

Finance ministry is right to refuse another bailout

The Union finance ministry has refused to give Rs 300 billion of taxpayers’ money to the state-owned airline, Air India (AI). The Union ministry for civil aviation had apparently asked for the help as AI has once again found that its humongous debt burden is getting in the way of its regular operation, such as the payment of employees and vendors. The finance ministry has complained that there is still no coherent plan to revive AI and make it sustainable — which means that sinking yet more hundreds of billions of rupees into the airline would not help. This is