Home Minister Amit Shah will head a reconstituted group of ministers (GoM) on Air India disinvestment. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has been dropped from the panel.

The panel, which is to work out the modalities for sale of Air India, will now have four ministers, Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

When the panel, named Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), was first constituted in June 2017, it had five members and was headed by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

According to sources, the GoM was reconstituted after the Modi 2.0 government came to power and now this group of ministers will work the modalities of disinvestment.



New Divestment Roadmap

Earlier, the government had invited bids from investors in 2018 to buy out the government's 76 per cent stake in Air India along with management control. However, the process failed as investors did not put in their bids.



Following that a transaction advisor prepared a report citing the probable reasons that led to failure of the sale process.



The reasons of bid failures cited include the government retaining 24 per cent stake and corresponding rights, high debt, volatile crude oil prices, fluctuations in exchange rate, changes in macro environment and restriction on bidding by individuals.



Now, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has already prepared a fresh proposal for Air India sale, incorporating issues like crude oil prices and exchange rate volatility, and other issues flagged by EY last year.



The government, sources said, could this time sell its entire 100 per cent stake in Air India as it aims to conclude the sale process by December 2019.