Air India’s hot seat goes to Nandan

AT one time, there was quite a queue of IAS officers for the coveted post of CMD, Air India. More’s the pity, then, that, after Arvind Jadhav was given marching orders, two senior officials declined to accept the post. After K Jose Cyriac, Secretary in the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, and VJ Kurian, MD of Cochin airport, refused, there were four contenders for the post. Two were old hands in Air India and one was an aviation expert who heads an important government organisation.

 

However, according to insiders, TKA Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, chose Rohit Nandan over the more experienced candidates. A 1982-batch officer of the UP cadre, he was serving as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, so it can be assumed that he is not a complete novice. But what he can do to salvage an airline suffering losses of Rs 70,000 crore is anybody’s guess. g