Govt is yet to decide on the owner of Air India: Piyush Goyal

The government is yet to decide on the owner of the state-owned carrier Air India and will take its own time after assessment of all bids, minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said.

Talking at a press conference here on Saturday, Goyal said the bids have been received, assessed by the officers, but no decision has been taken. “Even I am in Dubai for the last two days. There is a well laid down process and it will take time,” he said.

Goyal is in Dubai for the inauguration of the India Pavilion in the Dubai Expo 2020 and to meet ministers, industrialists, business and Indian diaspora community in the United Arab Emirates.

Incidentally, few media reports have said the Tata Group has emerged as the front-runner and some even said they have won the bid for privatisation of Air India. Tata Sons and SpiceJet have recently placed their bids for the bleeding airline.

Talking about his engagement with the business community in Dubai during his current trip, Goyal said he has met many business leaders from across the globe who were interested and amazed at the opportunities and enthusiasm India offers.

On Friday night, he had interacted with top industrialists and CEOs including Lakhsmi Mittal, Anil Agarwal, PP Hinduja, Ravi Jaipuria, Noel Tata, Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo, Sanjiv Mehta of Hindustan Unilever, TV Narendran of Tata Steel and Manish Sharma of Panasonic amongst others. On Saturday, he met Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman of DP World, and Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar, chairman at Emaar Properties.

“India and UAE share a complementary relationship and are not in competition with each other. We can collaborate to serve a large part of the world. Indian businesses in sectors like leather, accessories, footwear, pharma and healthcare, processed and packaged food have huge opportunities, while Indian professionals in IT and software services get good opportunities. We now have to encourage Indian businesses to engage with the UAE,” he said.

Goyal said the government still aspires to achieve its goal of making India a five trillion-dollar economy within the original time frame of 2024-25 despite the jolts which Covid gave, and in worst case it might be little delayed. “We are working as per the original schedule. We have tried to convert the crisis into an opportunity in the last 18 months and several game changing decisions were taken. Most sectors have recovered and some like travel, tourism and hospitality are now coming back on track,” he said.

The government is also keen to have a global Expo in India of the size and scale like the Dubai Expo 2020 which has seen participation from all large global economies and will run from October till March 2022. Some 25 million visitors from across the world are expected. “This is high on the agenda. We will pitch for it at the appropriate time,” said Goyal.

(The reporter is in Dubai for the Dubai Expo 2020 on an invitation from Ficci).