It won’t be an easy integration, but international investors should be thrilled to get the deal they have always equated with a clear signal that India wants less govt in commerce.
The government on 8 October had announced that salt-to-software conglomerate Tatas have won the bid to acquire debt-laden national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore.
An official announcement is expected in the coming days. For Tata Sons, the recommendation means it’s coming back to an asset it started almost 90 years ago.
UK firm Cairn Energy had said it would drop litigation to seize Air India's assets in the US after it gets the $1 billion refund, which is due to it after India scrapped its retrospective tax law.
K Rajaraman, additional secretary in the Dept of Economic Affairs, was also appointed as Telecommunications Secretary during a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle Wednesday.
The successful bidder will get 100% stake in Air India and its low-cost arm Air India Express, and 50% in AISATS, which deals in cargo and ground handling services.
The move follows the Modi govt agreeing to refund Rs 7,900 crore to Cairn & scrapping retrospective tax, resulting in withdrawal of Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on the British firm.
The DRDO will get 6 aircraft from Air India, get them modified & fit them with the Airborne Early Warning & Control system that can detect & track all flying objects faster than ground-based radars.
Cairn, which last year won an arbitration award for $1.7 bn over a controversial retrospective tax demand, has called Air India 'an alter ego' of the Indian govt.
Indian govt officials last month skipped Turkish National Day celebrations in Delhi, in a message to Ankara following its support for Islamabad, particularly during Operation Sindoor.
Bihar is blessed with a land more fertile for revolutions than any in India. Why has it fallen so far behind then? Constant obsession with politics is at the root of its destruction.
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