Air India has broken 19-year privatisation jinx
The privatisation of government-owned companies has resumed after a hiatus of almost 19 years with the Narendra Modi government deciding to sell Air India to Tata Group. The Centre had been trying to privatise public sector enterprises (PSEs) for four years through what it safely labels “strategic sale”.
A list of 20 firms was drawn up in 2017 but the investor community evinced little enthusiasm for them. The last time a PSE was privatised was by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which demitted office in May 2004.
There were a series of controversies that came with it, leading to successive governments dropping strategic sale from their agenda. While Air India was on the initial list of 2017, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Container Corporation of India,
