All rational persons I am sure, will back a privatisation plan for Air India. Even in private hands, it will remain an Indian company and if its performance does improve, as it will most likely do under private ownership, we will all be proud of it as we

The short but critical point is that Air India should be privatised as soon as pos- sible. This should be done even if it means having to pay a strategic investor perhaps by offering them the lucrative bilateral routes currently owned by Air India under the IATA's global oligopolistic arrangement, which itself is a bit of an anachronism.

The global civil aviation industry is a tough place with cut throat competition and owners with deep pockets and airlines with massive economies of scale. They are out to grab greater market share. In this viciously competitive environment, made more difficult by the industry's long cycles of troughs and peaks, only the best can hope to survive. Air India, as a PSE, with its senior management being made up of civil servants, who are perpetually uncertain of both their actual authority and tenure, is badly hamstrung to face this competition.

We are too far away from that paradigm to even

There is simply no alternative to privatising Air India. The longer we refuse to bite the bullet, the greater will be the damage to national pride, the public exchequer and the Indian civil aviation industry. For India's sake let's act decisively now.