After 68Years , Air India returns to Tata fold !

After 68 years, Air India is all set to return to the Tata fold. The Tata group subsidiary Talace Pvt Ltd, won the bid for Air India and its subsidiary Air India express. The total bid based on the enterprise value is Rs 18,000 crore. Of that Rs 15,300 crore will be the airline's debt taken over by the Tatas while the rest Rs 2,700 crore will be cash paid to the government.The handover process will be completed by December 2021. The finance ministry is eyeing to close the transaction by December, which means by December Tata Sons will get the shares and the government will get the consideration.Air India at present has 12,085 employees, including 8, 084 permanent employees. Air India Express, on the other hand, has 1,434 employees. The current employees of Air India will be retained for one year. There will be no sacking, the ministry said. All employees will get gratuity and provident fund and post-retirement medical benefits. Since the 1990s, Air India has been struggling to survive in the aviation sector which is characterised by extreme competition from low-cost airlines, both domestic and international.Moments after the announcement, Ratan Tata in a tweet said, “Welcome back, Air India". In a note, he said, “The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news! While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Group’s presence in the Aviation industry."