An insider’s revelation

"The Tatas had mooted a proposal for a private airline with 40 percent equity contribution from Singapore Airlines. As this would have been a formidable competitor, Jet (Airways) tried hard to upset rules regarding foreign equity contribution,” writes former civil aviation secretary M. K. Kaw in his tell-all book An Outsider Everywhere — Revelations by an Insider, reported Hindustan Times (HT) on April 30, 2012.

Had Tata’s venture taken off 15 years ago, it would have changed the trajectory of the country’s civil aviation history, according to the retired Indian Administrative Service official. Kaw writes that the then civil aviation minister Chand Mahal Ibrahim "did not clear the file, despite several attempts on my part.” According to Kaw, the Tatas also wanted to develop an international airport at Bangalore. Eventually they "got tired of waiting and withdrew their proposal.”