Rohit Nandan, a joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry and a senior UP cadre IAS officer of the 1982 batch, is likely to be the new Air India chairman and managing director. Incumbent CMD Arvind Jadhav is being replaced by a government that is clearly unhappy at his performance. As first reported by this newspaper a week ago, there has been intense speculation of late that Mr Jadhav was being replaced. The likely successor, Mr Rohit Nandan, happens to be a nephew of veteran Congressman and former UP chief minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna. The formal appointment orders are likely to be issued Friday for Mr Nandan to be appointed for a period of three years.
Mr Nandan had earlier served as principal secretary in the UP government and dealt with agriculture. He was named joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry in December 2009. The Air India board is also likely to meet Saturday.
The government is all set to remove Mr Jadhav mainly due to the “trust deficit” between him and the airline’s employees. The government felt Mr Jadhav had completely lost the trust of employees of the cash-strapped unified national carrier, which is facing a serious financial crisis. His recent trip to London in the midst of the current Parliament session and the airline’s financial crisis had angered the government and he was ordered to return immediately. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi were reportedly unhappy with Air India’s worsening crisis and the government felt it was time to act. Mr Jadhav, an IAS officer of the 1978 batch, was appointed CMD in May 2009.
While current indications are that Mr Nandan is likely to be appointed both chairman and managing director of Air India, there was some speculation that the government was initially examining the possibility of bifurcating the two designations, as well as appointing two deputy managing directors in charge of the airline’s domestic and international operations. But there is no clarity on the likelihood of such a possibility.
The government had initially sounded out a few IAS officers who were apparently reluctant to take up the appointment for various reasons. Then it was decided to consider the appointment of a joint secretary rank officer within the ministry itself. The government made it clear it is committed to the infusion of more financial equity from it to Air India, which has been suffering annual losses of over `5,000 crores for the past few years. The government has so far said it is not planning to undo the unification of the airline that took place four years ago.