M A I N   N E W S

Air-India, IA sell-off stalled
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15
The Union Cabinet tonight decided to take off Indian Airlines (IA) and Air India (AI) from the disinvestment list, invite fresh bid for Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), remove quantitative restrictions (QRs) on onion exports and provide an additional grant of Rs 40 crore under the "Aid to Nepal" programme for the B P Koirala Institute of Health and Science in the Himalayan Kingdom.

Highlights Quantitative restrictions on onion exports removed Fresh bids for Shipping Corporation Rs 40 cr grant to Nepalese health institute

The decision to take off Indian Airlines and Air India from the disinvestment list comes apparently in the wake of downswing in the aviation industry at large and the government would not have got a good bid for the two carriers.

The decision would now pave the way for India’s domestic and international carriers to modernise their fleet in the face of severe competition in domestic and international sectors.

The Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Shahnawaz Hussain, while expressing happiness at the decision, said if the two public sector carriers were to survive the heightened competition, they should be allowed to go ahead with their fleet expansion plans.

He said the privatisation of the two carriers was not feasible at the present juncture as world airlines and the aviation industry at large were on a downswing. "No major airline or aviation company is at present willing or in a position to invest", Mr Hussain added.

The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD), chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, decided to call fresh bids for selling its 51 per cent stake in the SCI, retaining the existing advisors.