Govt forms panel to search for A-I chief

Waking up to the need for a permanent managing director for Air India, particularly when it is going in for a massive Rs 10,000-crore fleet expansion, the Government has constituted a search committee to shortlist and select the right candidate.

At the moment, Sunil Arora, the chairman-cum-MD of Indian Airlines, is also heading A-I. Sources say the committee — comprising Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande, Personnel Secretary Arun K. Bhatnagar, Public Enterprises Selection Board Chairman T.K. Nair and Civil Aviation Secretary K. Roy Paul — was set up a week before the A-I board approved of the expansion plan. Earlier, the Government had deferred the selection of a permanent MD and given Arora dual charge in August. The ministry had then suggested two names — Anurag Goel and Raghu Menon, both joint secretaries. But the Government did not accept either of them.