Tata Sons has been selected as the winning bidder for Air India. File

New Delhi:

Industrialist Anand Mahindra has welcomed the government’s announcement of Tata Sons winning the bid for Air India, saying the disinvestment of the national carrier amounts to a “reset” of the Indian business environment.

The Mahindra Group chairman said that with this move, the government is not just dispensing of a cash drain — the government had been losing nearly Rs 20 crore daily to keep the national carrier flying — but also renewing its faith in the private sector.

“I may be accused of overstating the importance of this event but I think this divestment amounts to a ‘reset’ of the Indian business environment. Yes, the Govt. is dispensing of a cash drain; But it’s also renewing faith-after decades-in the potential efficiency of the Pvt.sector,” Mr Mahindra tweeted, sharing a post by Tata Sons Emeritus Chairman Ratan Tata after the group regained control of Air India after 70 years.

I may be accused of overstating the importance of this event but I think this divestment amounts to a ‘reset’ of the Indian business environment. Yes, the Govt. is dispensing of a cash drain; But it’s also renewing faith-after decades-in the potential efficiency of the Pvt.sector https://t.co/iZKgt2L7cD

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) October 8, 2021

Tata Sons was selected as the winning bidder for Air India, ending decades of attempts to privatise a debt-laden airline, and potentially ending years of taxpayer bailouts that kept it running.

Tata Sons, which originally launched Air India Ltd. with a namesake branding in 1932, bid Rs 18,000 crore as an enterprise value for Air India, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, top bureaucrat at the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said at a briefing on Friday. The government aims to complete the transaction by the end of 2021.