With the advantage of hindsight, one can safely claim that the business and economic policies implemented by the first government of post-1947 India under Jawaharlal Nehru afflicted India with a lifelong disease that promoted mediocrity and punished excellence; the saga of Air India is its first and the biggest symptom!
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What the Nehru government did in 1953 with the single stroke of the pen was not just limited to the nationalisation of Air India or shaking the foundations of the Indian air transport industry, it ended up weakening the overall cause of private enterprises in the country. Later, this watershed event became the foundational reason for many subsequent assaults on private entrepreneurship via nationalisation of banks, insurance and mining companies.
How foolish is Tata Group to even purchase Air India just for emotional reasons. Kudos to Modi for offloading this liability from tax payers hands to Tatas.
What has legal due-diligence got to do with my comment? I never said that there would be legal trouble in the Air India acquisition.
I just said the decision seems more emotional than logical and this is not the first time Tatas have done this. They kept manufacturing Tata Nano until March 2020 even after realizing that it was a failed project just because it was the dream project.
And if that's one of the only few examples you have in an otherwise 150 year old legacy, I'm not sure it fully supports your argument.
Let's also remember that automobiles and aviation are two fundamentally different industries. I'd also encourage you to read more about India's aviation industry, from a market penetration and growth perspective, and you'll see why this could be a significant moment for industry in the years to come, if played right by the Tatas.
Also, agreed, not putting the brakes on the Nano project at the right time was not the right decision but when the decision to launch the project was announced, it was celebrated across the world. It's easier to make statements after the fact but it's harder to make them before their occurence.
My larger point is: let's respect a decision when it's taken and not arbitrarily brand it as emotional and therefore incorrect.
Don't have to bid for the whole entity. Strip the assets and sell those separately. The aftermath would still have been zero debt left for the public. The creditors would have had to eat the rest given that they foolishly continued lending to a loss making entity thinking that the government would pay off, which it is actually promising to now, at least for 75% of that debt.
You do realise that Air India could be the biggest "assault on private entrepreneurship" onthe Tatas, right? It could bring down the whole group in the 21st century when the air travel has reached even the lower-middle class.
And you're talking of a time barely 5 decades since mankind first flew an aeroplane for 12 seconds (Wright Brothers, 1903). It was also barely 2 decades since independence during which the country had fought 3 wars already and 2 decades after the one of the biggest economic depressions in capitalist economies. It was also after 200 years of colonization at the hands of a private company.
I'm not saying Nehru did wonders for the Indian economy. I'm just saying it is important to study individuals and policies in the context of the times they lived in.
PS: It might give you enough reason to eke out the complexities of India's failures beyond Nehru. You'll find that it lays a lot of the blame at the doorstep of the national bourgeoisie.
Kudos to Modi for offloading this liability from tax payers hands to Tatas.
They should have just listened to you before shelling out 18000 crores.
I just said the decision seems more emotional than logical and this is not the first time Tatas have done this. They kept manufacturing Tata Nano until March 2020 even after realizing that it was a failed project just because it was the dream project.
Let's also remember that automobiles and aviation are two fundamentally different industries. I'd also encourage you to read more about India's aviation industry, from a market penetration and growth perspective, and you'll see why this could be a significant moment for industry in the years to come, if played right by the Tatas.
Also, agreed, not putting the brakes on the Nano project at the right time was not the right decision but when the decision to launch the project was announced, it was celebrated across the world. It's easier to make statements after the fact but it's harder to make them before their occurence.
My larger point is: let's respect a decision when it's taken and not arbitrarily brand it as emotional and therefore incorrect.
Peace.
And you're talking of a time barely 5 decades since mankind first flew an aeroplane for 12 seconds (Wright Brothers, 1903). It was also barely 2 decades since independence during which the country had fought 3 wars already and 2 decades after the one of the biggest economic depressions in capitalist economies. It was also after 200 years of colonization at the hands of a private company.
I'm not saying Nehru did wonders for the Indian economy. I'm just saying it is important to study individuals and policies in the context of the times they lived in.
Chibber is a Prof of Sociology at NYU - https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/vivek-a-chibber.html
Locked in Place is his multiple award-winning work (which was, IMHO, his doctoral dissertation) - https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691126234/locked-in-place
PS: It might give you enough reason to eke out the complexities of India's failures beyond Nehru. You'll find that it lays a lot of the blame at the doorstep of the national bourgeoisie.