NEW DELHI: The entire country's eyes are on the Tata Group and Air India waiting to see what they will achieve together, Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran told the carrier's employees in his first communique after taking over the airline on Thursday. The Indian government on Thursday officially handed over Air India to the Tata Group after nearly 69 years.
Following a competitive bidding process, the government had on October 8 last year sold Air India to Talace Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata Group's holding company, for Rs 18,000 crore.
In the communique sent to Air India's employees, Chandrasekaran said, "I have learned that to preserve what is best about the past, requires constant change.It is by evolving, adapting and embracing the future that we best honour a glorious history."
"The entire nation's eyes are on us, waiting to see what we will achieve together," he noted, adding, "To build the airline our country needs, we need to look to the future?"
Air India was started by the Tata Group in 1932. However, after the country got independence, the airline was nationalised in 1953 by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.