Management Teaching Cases

Air India on Sale Emerging Economies Cases Journal

1–11
2020 IIM, Rohtak
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DOI: 10.1177/2516604220942971
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Arjuni Jain Agarwal1 and Irala Lokanandha Reddy2

Abstract
This case study is based on the epic divestment of Air India which eventually did not take off. Post ill-conceived merger without any
synergies, the losses began to enlarge exponentially. This led the carrier to financial losses, apart from that enormous order of 110
fleets without having the capacity to pay, crippled the financial status of the airline substantially. All the government’s effort to restruc-
ture and turn around the airline proved to be a failure. The plot for this case is set as, considering the government’s inability to cope
with its debts and meet day-to-day expenses in this extremely competitive industry, the Union Cabinet gave its ‘in-principle’ nod to
divest holdings in Air India, but had not formally announced for the bidding process, a group of ministers are still working on terms
of divestment. Meanwhile the news created a buzz and potential bidders have started informally expressing their interest in Air India.
The government is expecting more and more bidders to participate to derive maximum out of the auction. When more and more
bidders participate in a bid, the bid amount always ascends and a situation of winner’s curse is created where the winning bidder has a
feeling of regret by over-paying the amount in order to win the bid. The subject that this case will fit into is Game Theory and Strategic
Management courses and central theme or concept to be taught through this case is situation of winner’s curse and some more con-
cepts related to Auctions and Strategy.

Keywords
Finance, organizational behaviour, operations, economics and strategy

On 28 March 2018, the global aviation industry was the fact that air transport was still considered a luxury for
stormed by the breaking news. the mass population of the country with approximately 40
per cent upwardly mobile middle class (Brand India, n.d.b).
The Government issued a Preliminary Information
Memorandum (PIM) inviting Expression of Interest (EI)for
strategic disinvestment of Air India. (Service, 2018, May 22; Background
Figure 1)
Since Air India has been merged with Indian Airlines in
2007, it has been unprofitable (Kotoky, 2018, January 15).
Air India Limited (AIL), an Indian flag carrier, a
Air India’s losses widened to more than `75 billion in the
government-owned enterprise, operates a fleet of Airbus
financial year 2011–2012 (Figure 3 and Table 1) and stood
and Boeing aircraft serving in 94 national and international
at `38.367 billion at the end 2016, which had prompted the
destinations (Air India, 2019, July 04).
NITI Aayog1 to propose the divestment of Air India to the
During 2018, Indian civil aviation was classified as the
Ministry of Civil Aviation (Usmani, 2017, June 28). The
‘ninth largest aviation sector in the world’ and is anticipated
Civil Aviation Ministry had discovered the options and
to be ‘the third largest by 2020 and the largest by 2030’
methods to turnaround Air India, which was running on a
(Reuters, 2018, May 30) (Figure 2). In the last 3 years,
bailout fund of `300 billion (Times of India, n.d.).
Indian civil aviation has been one of the fastest growing
sectors in the country and is projected to become ‘the biggest
domestic civil aviation industry in the world’ over the next 1 Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
10–15 years. The passenger market in India is also projected 2 University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
to displace Great Britain and become the third largest
Corresponding author:
passenger market by 2025 (Livemint, 2017, October 24). Arjuni Jain Agarwal, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh
It was mostly untapped and would provide enormous 284001, India.
growth opportunities (Brand India, n.d.b), keeping in view E-mail: f18arjunija@iima.ac.in

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2 Emerging Economies Cases Journal

Figure 1. Advertisement from Government of India Inviting EoI for Air India Divestment Preliminary Information Memorandum
Source: http://www.civilaviation.gov.in/sites/default/files/PRELIMINARY INFORMATION MEMORANDUM.pdf

Figure 2. Passenger Traffic Carried by Scheduled Carriers Over the Past Decade
Source: http://www.dgca.nic.in/pub/HANDBOOK 2017-18/HANDBOOK 2017-18.pdf
Note: The domestic passenger traffic registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.76% during the period 2007–2008 to 2017–2018
while the international passenger traffic grew at 8.32% (CAGR) during the same period.
Agarwal and Reddy 3

Table 1. Reasons for Air India Losses

Increase in competition: Substantial increase in competition due to many players in the domestic and international markets.
The adverse impact of exchange rate variation: The dynamic fluctuations in the exchange rates adversely affect the working of the
company.
Less income in passenger revenue: Passenger revenue earned by the company was of `157.73 billion that is almost 20% lower
than forecasted `212.97 billion in FY16. The company failed to meet the targets despite meeting load factor targets. So that
implied that airline lost revenue due to its inefficiencies like lack of aircraft availability, faulty deployment, low utilization of human
resources and lack of ancillary revenue.
Low monetization of assets: Lack or faulty initiatives to monetize its assets is one of the primary prerequisites of meeting the
revenue deficiency that led to a dip in the company’s fortunes.
Non-availability of the proper fleet: The audit finds that there has been a mismatch in demand and availability of the airline imposes
strategic limitations. For instance, there was over-provisioning of wide-body aircraft whereas it did not have the required number
of narrow-body aircraft.
Liberalization in granting bilateral agreements with foreign countries: The audit pointed out that more than required granting of
bilateral seats to carriers of foreign countries hurt Air India’s prospects.
 Mismatched international operation: Air India can be on an expansion drive to new international destinations but the audit says
that most of such routes burn a hole in the airline’s pocket as it fails to recovers the cost.
Mismanagement and faulty policies had brought the airline to the crisis level. Complete lack of ownership and responsibility for
the results and failures of the airline. Deeply ingrained corruption at all levels. The combined effect of all these reasons shoved Air
India deep into the clutches of losses.
Piecemeal recapitalization weakens turnaround efforts: The government has committed to funding the carrier’s turnaround plan.
Infusing capital in one-time, it is spread in over an uncertain schedule. When each small tranche is received it is largely absorbed
by the overdue vendor and salary payments rather than being utilized to implement turnaround initiatives. As a result, the
recapitalization efforts are not providing the strategic stability required.
Huge interest burden due to debts: Air India’s bank loans and aircraft-related debt total approximately USD 9 billion, additionally
there are vendor-related liabilities, for example, airport operators, fuel suppliers, etc. If all combined, Air India’s debt is
approximately twice than that of all the other carriers in India.
Sub-optimal aircraft utilization: Air India’s fleet utilization is very poor with only around 100 operational aircraft out of a total
registered fleet of 127 aircraft. And even those aircraft in service have daily utilization rates below the industry average. Air India:
‘There are some routes in which Air India and AI Express are competing'.
The productivity of the bloated workforce: According to the requirement, the company had 11,433 employees as against the
envisaged requirement of 7,245. Besides, there was underutilization of pilots and cabin crews led to a loss for the airline. Highest
employee per aircraft in the world 200:1. Whereas desirable is 130-170: 1. And the airline carries the historical baggage of
unresolved issues related to the integration of employees during the merger of Air India and the former Indian Airlines in 2007.
Review of business model: Air India requires a comprehensive review of its business model. Each of its key domains at present
is suffering from fundamental weaknesses. For example, on its long-haul routes, it does not have the commercial strength to
drive the necessary yields and premium traffic volumes. While on the domestic front it faces a significant capacity crunch due to
a limited fleet, which itself is dominated by an aircraft type that is not competitive on most of the routes that it operates. The
absence of a domestic low-cost operation or a clear regional strategy means that it is not participating in the fastest-growing
segments of the market.
Government intervention: The management of Air India has to deal with excessive intervention by the Ministry of Civil Aviation
and other ministries.
Source: CAPA (2013, February 19).

On 28 June 2017, the Union Cabinet granted in-principle

consent to NITI Aayog’s plan for the divestment in the
national carrier (Times of India, n.d.). A group of ministers
(GOM), with the Finance Minister as its chairman, were to
finalize modalities and details of the proposed sale of Air
India. Also, the group was mandated to study the balance
sheet of Air India with its assets and issues primarily related to
debt (Usmani, 2017, June 28). While the government
advocated an outright sale of the competitive airline, the Civil
Aviation Ministry wanted to continue working as an interested
Figure 3. Net Losses of Air India party in the national airline after the management was handed
Source: Usmani (2017, June 28). over to the private sector (Correspondent, 2017, June 28).
4
History of Air India
In 1932, J. R. D. Tata introduced the first planned Indian
airline, Tata Airlines, to pilot a single-engine flight from
Karachi to Mumbai via Ahmedabad. Nevill Vintcent, a
former Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and J. R. D. Tata’s
colleague, flew a plane from Bellary to Chennai to complete
the trip.
In its initial year of service in 1933, Tata Airlines trav-
elled 160,000 miles with 155 passengers and 9.72 tons of
mail and made a profit of US $840 (`60,000). In the years
that followed, Tata Airlines continued to focus on sales
under a mail order agreement with the Indian government.
In 1953 the government passed the aviation law and
nationalized the entire aviation sector in India. Eight
separate domestic airlines were integrated with Indian
Airlines, which was the main domestic carrier, and Air
India International took over foreign routes. This privilege
has been perpetuated for the next 40 years. On 8 June 1960,
the name of the carrier was formally truncated to Air India
from Air India International. On 11 June 1960, Air India
becomes the world’s first all-jet airline.
Air India experienced tough times in the early 1970s.
Around 1976 and 1985, it incurred losses in 3 years. The
slowdown in the world economy had a major effect on air
transport throughout the globe, and India being no
exception. After that, it was the world’s first airline to
incorporate into its fleet the innovative A320 fly-by-wire
built by French Airbus Industries in 1989.
Air India joined the Guinness Book of World Records
for the maximum number of passengers rescued by a
passenger airliner during the Persian Gulf War to deport
Indian emigrants from Kuwait and Iraq.
It also introduced the Global Distribution System,
which enabled agents to access various airline inventories.
The government announced its price control policies and
market-linked fares came into existence. After 37 years of
operation in 1992, the government agreed to break the
monopoly of Indian Airlines over domestic civil aviation
by opening the doors to East-West Airlines to serve as a
national level private airline.
Figure 4. Approximate Cost Structure of Aviation Industry in India, 2016–2017
Source: http://www.dgca.nic.in/pub/HANDBOOK 2017-18/HANDBOOK 2017-18.pdf
Emerging Economies Cases Journal
An open-air policy has been adopted that has allowed
air taxi companies to run chartered and unchartered flights
from any airport and to decide on their flight schedules,
freight and passenger fares.
Air India’s low-cost carrier, Air India Express (AI
Express), was introduced in April 2005. The same year, an
advance check-in service was made accessible at the Air
India Building in Mumbai (Nariman Point).
After 2004, both the companies’ sales have been
significantly impacted. Their market share decreased to a
great extent and, to avoid rivalry, the then Minister of Civil
Aviation (2004−2011), Praful Patel, suggested the merger
of AIL and Indian Airlines Limited (IAL). Air India was
the combined body of AIL and IAL.
Contradictory to their assumptions, the merged entity
began to incur massive losses as of 2007. As a result, the
major expectations of the merger to plough profits were not
fulfilled. Air India suffered losses of `280 billion between
1 April 2007 and 31 March 2012.
World Aviation Industry
Although the aviation sector’s revenue is estimated to peak
at $35.6 billion in 2016, soft landings in productive areas
are projected to make a net income of $29.8 billion in 2017,
the eighth consecutive year with a gross return on sales of
Airline shows tolerance to shocks that had become the
foundation of the sector. On an average, airlines are
retaining $7.54 for every passenger they carry.
The predicted spike in oil prices will have the biggest
effect on the 2017 outlook (Figure 4). Oil rates have hit
$44.6/barrel (Brent) during 2016 and have been forecast to
grow to $55.0 by 2017. It will raise the price of jet-fuel
around $52.1/bar (2016) to $64.9/barrel. (2017). A share of
18.7 per cent of the sector’s cost structure is forecast for
2017, slightly below the previous high of 33.2 per cent in
2012-2013.
The incentive for demand for lower energy costs will
stabilize in 2017 and reduce traffic growth to 5.1 per cent
versus 5.9 per cent in 2016. Industrial production expansion
Agarwal and Reddy 5

is however projected to slip to 5.6 per cent after 6.2 per
cent during 2016. Capacity development might also surpass
increased demand as well as decrease the worldwide
passenger load factor to 79.8 per cent from 80.2 per cent
during 2016.
The repercussions of under-utilized factors are expected
to be partially reconciled with global economic
developments. World GDP is forecast to grow by 2.5 per
cent in 2017 particularly in comparison to 2.2 per cent
during 2016. Along with economic market improvements,
this must help to improve the return from both cargo and
passenger businesses.
Attractiveness of Air India
Acquisition
Indian Civil Aviation Market
India is perhaps one of the fastest growing domestic
aviation industries in the world and was to jump to third
place in the air traffic after the USA and China (Brand
India, n.d.a) (Table 5). According to the forecast by the
International Air Transport Association (IATA), the region
Asia-Pacific would be the driver with the greatest demand
between 2016 and 2036, with even more than 50 per cent
of new passenger traffic coming from the region (IATA,
n.d.). This incentive in itself will enhance the motivation of
every airline with strategic ambitions.
airline industry (Figure 5) and 10.4 per cent of foreign
flight operations (Table 2).
In addition, Air India’s home network, which spans
nearly 55 destinations, has been a tremendous advantage to
tapping growing Tier II and Tier III market demand in
India and is considered one of the largest domestic aviation
markets. Air India even had access to airplane parking and
hangar amenities in many other significant domestic and
global destinations (Table 3).
Besides, the airline was the largest international airline
in India with a 17 per cent market share. There were also
attractive slots at airports with limited capacity. This could
be a significant advantage for a new or existing player
looking to enter or expand their markets. As of 31 December
2017, Air India had approximately 280 slot machines out
of a total of 3,739 national slot machines and 2,543
international slot machines per year in the Gulf and Middle
East region, which included Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Tel Aviv
and Muscat (PTI, 2018, March 29).

Air India
Air India operated a fleet of 140 long-haul aircraft which
travelled to almost 41 overseas as well as 72 domestic Figure 5. Airline Market Share in May
destinations, representing 13 per cent of the domestic Source: Usmani (2017, June 28).

Table 2. Market Share (%) of Top 15 Scheduled Operators—International Operations, 2017–2018

Source: http://www.dgca.nic.in/pub/HANDBOOK 2017-18/HANDBOOK 2017-18.pdf

Note: Out of total 93 scheduled international operators, top 6 operators accounted for nearly 50% of total international passenger traffic and top
15 operators account for nearly three-fourth of the total international passenger traffic in the year 2017–2018.
6
Table 3. Air India’s Attractions
• The largest share of international traffic to and fro from
India at 17%
• 14% domestic traffic share
• Flies to 72 Indian destinations and 41 international
destinations
• A fleet of 140 planes
• Owns about 2,000 pilots, 2,000 engineers and 4,000 cabin
crew
• Only Indian Airlines with own aircraft maintenance and
repairs centre
• Training centre with Boeing 777 and 787 simulators
• A huge pool of landholding at various places
• Owns the largest number of aircraft hangers
• Prime slots at domestic airports
• 8% stake in Air Mauritius, share in telecom firm orange
SA, an IT firm SITA, Cochin International Airport and
Aeronautical Radio of Thailand
• Centaur hotels in Delhi and Srinagar
• The airline is a part of the star alliance, the biggest airline
grouping
• Flying rights to most of the countries and slots at key
airports like London, Heathrow and Frankfurt which are
deemed very valuable
• Air India is the owner of one of the largest collections of
modern Indian art. After princely states light out post-
independence, Air India became a patron of art. Works
by artists such as Anjolie E. Menon, M. F. Husain and V. S.
Gaitonde are a part of its extensive collection
• The possession also adds to expensive antique furniture,
some made of ivory
Source:- Shukla (2017, June 13).
Potential Bidders in the Market
In April 2018, an SBI Caps research report set Air India’s
value at around $2.5 billion (approximately `16.2 billion).
‘While most Indian airlines are eligible to bid, the
organization of funding could be challenging; airlines with
strong balance sheets like IndiGo or those with strong
sponsorship support like Vistara are better positioned’, said
SBI Caps (Majumder, 2018, April 6)
The buzz about Air India’s privatization plan grew
stronger day by day. Although potential bidders did not
have access to the special data room to carry out their
assessments, this could not prevent various national and
international airlines from informally expressing their
interest (Table 4). As per the news agencies, as of March
2018, there were at least three parties of possible bidders:
Tata-Singapore Airlines, Jet-Air France-KLM-Delta and
IndiGo-Qatar(Gupta, 2018, March 24).
Emerging Economies Cases Journal
Table 4. Potential Bidders and Their Deal Value
S. No. Potential Bidders Potential Deal Value
1 Tata-Singapore Airlines Extremely profitable
2 Jet-Air France-KLM-Delta Extremely profitable
3 IndiGo and Qatar Airways Extremely profitable
4 British Airways Profitable
5 German Airlines Profitable
6 Lufthansa Profitable
7 Etihad Profitable
8 Malaysian Airlines Profitable
Source: The authors.
Immediately upon the approval of the government for
the divestment, IndiGo was one among the early players to
formally show their keenness in buying stakes in the
national carrier (DH News Service, 2017, June 29) and it
had expressed interest in acquiring the foreign operations
of Air India and the AI Express (ET Bureau, 2018, April 6).
Air India may be a lucrative opportunity for IndiGo to
carry out its business strategy of ambitious growth in
domestic and foreign markets (Haidar, 2018, April 5).
The oldest private airline of India, Jet Airways CEO,
Vinay Dube also made the formal announcement indicating
that they would consider bidding for Air India after having
more clarity on what the government’s position was on the
broad outline of Air India’s privatization (Shukla, 2018,
March 29).
According to some media reports,
Tata Sons Ltd, which had expressed interest in Air India
back in 2000, may again be attracted to future sales and
N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of the group, held informal
discussions with the government to purchase 51 per cent of the
carrier, again collaborating with Singapore Airlines. (Kotoky
& Parija, 2017)
Once the news of the Delta had arisen, the other two main
airlines, United and American Airlines, had both started to
sniff around (Gupta, 2018, March 23).
DEAL IndiGO
For IndiGo it could be a worthy deal, though countries
largest carrier operates roughly 900 daily flights (PTI,
2017, July 10), covering 46 destinations including 7
international (Talukdar, 2017, May 9), Air India connects
72 domestic destinations, holds a share of 44 per cent of
global passenger traffic among national carriers in
comparison to IndiGo’s 9 per cent (Mody, 2017). Also,
IndiGo was short of supply for both engineers and pilots
Agarwal and Reddy 7
and airport infrastructure constraints, IndiGo would land
up sending their airplanes to Sri Lanka for repairs, Air
India’s in-house technical and engineering department, and
its and maintenance division with an overhaul division will
be a major asset on its own (PTI, 2014, April 24).
The intangible advantages of Star Alliance providing
connectivity to 1,269 destinations in more than 193 countries
would make the deal sweeter (Mody, 2017, July 5). At the
other side, IndiGo was faced with the challenges of preparing
pilots and staff, but Air India has aircraft from Airbus and
Boeing with various configurations that may contribute to
the difficulty of fleet management. Nevertheless, for IndiGo,
it may contribute to more troubling concerns regarding the
domestic monopoly scenario, provided that its total market
share would automatically grow to about 53 per cent (Gupta,
2018, March 24).
DEAL Tata-Singapore Airlines
The former and current chairman, Tata Group have been
informally been discussing their interest in the airline with
various government officials. Since the Joint-Venture
airline, Vistara would start flying international destinations
from the coming (Rai, 2017, June 21). Singapore Airlines
that was under pressure with competition from such
competitors as Thai Airways, Emirates and Cathay Pacific
could become very strong carrier if they were successful in
air India’s acquisition (HT Correspondent, 2017, June 22).
The Tata Group and Singapore Airlines were interested in
acquiring a 40 per cent stake in Air India way back in 2000
as well (Shukla, 2017, October 9). Apart from all these,
Ratan Tata was passionate about aviation (just as he was
about cars) (Shukla, 2017, June 21).
Considering India’s strategic position in Asia and its
wide and rising exit business, Singapore Airlines as well as
Delta have had several reasons to make an ambitious bid.
Singapore Airlines’ huge fleet of A380 wide-bodied crew
and aircraft has been seriously impacted after Emirates
collaborated with Qantas. Passengers heading to Europe
from Sydney or Melbourne in Australia had the ability to
take advantage of the Emirates Hub in Dubai to skip
Singapore., For Singapore Airlines, Air India could give
the opportunity to aggregate and channel intra-India traffic
to fill seats on its A380 flights to the USA, UK and Europe
(Gupta, 2018, March 23).
DEAL Jet-Air France-KLM-Delta
Until now (2018) Gulf Airlines has completely controlled
traffic via India to both USA and Europe, utilizing its base
in Dubai as well as Abu Dhabi, and gradually turning Asia
into the hub of the stage (Chowdhury, 2017, April 20).
India is expected to attract the focus of US airlines. US
switching over to India, following a number of
consolidations, the three main carriers, Delta, United
Airlines and the American Airlines, are already in pretty
good condition. For Delta, a better role in India offers a
realistic opportunity to reclaim market share throughout
the rising Indian-American business (Gupta, 2018, March
24). For this cause, the USA needed to link with a local
collaborator like those of Jet-Air and KLM-Air France in
Europe to tackle the gulf airline initiative. Inspired by
Delta’s participation in Air India divestment bid, the UK
and the USA are expected to join in the bidding war (Gupta,
2018, March 23).
Although AI Express, a low-cost carrier, so far has done
a decent job of taking advantage of both the Gulf and South
East Asia traffic from its Kerala headquarters. It is said to
have been in good condition and to have seen substantial
progress. One explanation behind this is that full-service
providers no longer retain adequate leverage in negotiations
and, in particular, the domestic sector has shifted to low-
cost carriers.
Until recently (March 2018), it was expected that only
three Indian firms would bid for the sale, they learned that
five more international airlines (British Airways, German
Airlines, Lufthansa, Etihad and Malaysian Airlines)
(Digital, 2018, April 12) had also shown their interest.
The Market Perception
The Tata Group is assumed to be ‘getting closer’ to a
Singapore Airlines partner to bid for Air India, according to
the Times of India report (Moneycontrol, n.d.). The
partnership arrangement is stated to be in place and the
Tata Group is anticipated to combine AI Express with Air
Asia India, stated in the article. The Tata Group has
approached Tony Fernandes, a Malaysian entrepreneur
who owns a 49 per cent stake in AirAsia India, for approval
of the acquisition of AI Express (Economic Times, 2020,
February 5). The story would close the circle of change and
not only underlines the sad situation of state-owned
companies but also how India’s indigenous market
communities fought to disappear even after decades of
socialist politics (Economic Times, 2019, November 5).
Regardless of the desire to buy Air India, a serious
bidder will not appear until the government decides on the
operating mode of sale. The exact number of those who
will appear as the top bidders will be announced later when
the bidding process is officially announced (Figure 6).
While this often happens, a strong list of applicants will
certainly have an impact on the size of offers, which is why
the government hoped it would be the happiest. Ultimately,
the seriousness with which they ultimately bid depends on
how important the deal is to their long-term strategic
interest. The government had made it clear that it might not
divest if the bid price was below the floor price (Financial
Express, 2018, May 31).
8 Emerging Economies Cases Journal

Figure 6. A Flowchart of the Bidding Process

Source: Coskun et al. (2013).
Agarwal and Reddy 9
Table 5. Financial Summary of all the Scheduled Indian Carriers, 2016–2017
Source: http://www.dgca.nic.in/pub/HANDBOOK 2017-18/HANDBOOK 2017-18.pdf
The government had announced the invitation for
expression of interest (EoI) submission on 28 March 2018
(Mishra, 2018, May 1). The buzz received (about Air India
stake sale) stood undoubtedly encouraging. The Indian
Ministry of Civil Aviation received nearly 160 enquiries
from potential bidders (Vikas, 2018, June 12).
However, on 31 May 2018, 5:45 pm, the Indian Civil
Aviation Ministry verified in a tweet.
As informed by the transaction adviser, no response had been
received for the Expression of Interest floated for the strategic
disinvestment of Air India. (Mishra, 2018, May 31)
As the final deadline was approaching, the government
officials were getting anxious about the nature of potential
bids. But much to their dismay, they realized that Air India
did not garner any bids. Despite all signs to the contrary,
corporate India is not that keen on acquiring an asset like
Air India. Why did Air India not receive any bids? This
question will be discussed ad nauseam in the coming days.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why do you think Air India did not attract any bids?
2. Do you think Air India was valued the same by all
bidders? Or did some bidders have a special affinity
for Air India when compared to others?
3. What could the Government have done to facilitate
more enthusiasm among potential bidders?
4. What do you think were the points of uncertainty for
a potential bidder in this exercise?
Acknowledgements
We are very thankful to Prof Viswanath Pingali (IIM-Ahmedabad)
for his keen and kind reviews in supervising this Case Study.
10
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research,
authorship and/or publication of this article.
Note
1. NITI Aayog, National Institution for Transforming India, is a
policy think tank of the government of India.
ORCID iDs
Arjuni Jain Agarwal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6527-290X
Irala Lokanandha Reddy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2670-8130
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Agarwal and Reddy 11
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