Bad news does not seem to leave the once glorious Maharaja of Air India these days. The latest blow, after government's decision to privatise, came after its decision to shift its affable Chairman Ashwani Lohani and bring in a PSU privatisation specialist from the government.
On Wednesday, government cleared the appointment of Rajiv Bansal, a 1988-batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre and from Harayana domicile, as the next chairman and managing director of Air India.
Bansal is currently officiating as additional secretary and financial adviser in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG). An official notification was issued on Thursday, making Bansal as the next Air India chief.
Outgoing Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani’s name was finalised earlier on Wednesday by the cabinet appointments committee, as the next choice for heading the railway board to bring back on track a dismal safety record displayed by the national transporter, in the last few years.
Coming in at a juncture when the fate of the national airline is more or less decided, Bansal, who had an earlier stint with the aviation ministry during 2006-08, has his job cut out. "He will have to administer the government’s privatisation plans for Air India," said an Air India senior management member.
"The tougher thing to do will be administer a sound severance policy for the staff members, as and when that need arises," said a management member, who has been with Air India for more than 30 years now and worked with five Air India chairmen before Lohani joined three years back.
This official also termed Lohani’s exit, after turning the airline operationally profitable even at the face of growing competition, as 'a bad news'. He said the new chairman would not only have to look at boosting employee morale after several big blows, but also find a fine balance between objectives of bank lenders and the government.
"The 10-year financial plan, which was earlier provided by the consortium of lenders, would need to be adhered to, and at the same time government’s disinvestment plans should progress. Its one for the other, or else the valuation would suffer when the government decides to reach out to the market," said the senior Air India official.
Though Bansal’s initial appointment is for a period of three-months, sources in the civil aviation ministry said that the terms of appointment could be extended upto a period of two years, depending on whether there would be requirement for a government-appointed chairman to continue at the helms of Air India.
Senior bureaucrat Bansal is defined as a ‘tough boss’ with a keen eye on money matters. He is also credited to have instituted digital payment mechanisms of the government. Bansal had been on the board of a number of PSUs and was recently nominated as director in the ONGC board.
Previously, he had been on the boards of BHEL, Alliance Air, HMT, NACIL among others. He has a strong academic grounding from management institutes like IIT Delhi, BE (civil), a diploma in finance from ICFAI, Hyderabad and an executive masters in international business from IIFT, Delhi.
