AI to get new boss, bankers on its board

Air India is set to get a new chief and eminent bankers and private business leaders as independent members of its board, as the government is making another round of attempts to put it back on track. Tushar Srivastava reports.

Air India (AI) is set to get a new chief and eminent bankers and private business leaders as independent members of its board, as the government is making another round of attempts to put it back on track.

HT Image

Rohit Nandan, a 1982-batch IAS official of Uttar Pradesh cadre, is likely to succeed Arvind Jadhav, a 1978 batch IAS, as chairman and managing director, though Jadhav still has more than eight months left of his three-year tenure.

Sources said there was also a possibility of the CMD's post being bifurcated.

The government has also approached some top bankers and corporate leaders — HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, former Infosys board member TV Mohandass Pai and former chairman of the State Bank of India OP Bhatt — to join as independent directors on the board.

Nandan, a cousin of Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi, has been a joint secretary in the aviation ministry since December 2009. His name was proposed by aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi and cleared by the prime minister’s office. Pai and Parekh refused comment, while Bhatt did not reply to calls and text message from HT.