Gautam Chikermane ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ
Gautam Chikermane ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ

@gchikermane

9 Tweets 5 reads Oct 01, 2021
Congratulations to @narendramodi for providing the political conviction for reforms; @HardeepSPuri for nursing the process; and @JM_Scindia for executing one of the most difficult reforms!
A thread on the history nationalisation of airlines โ€” and its ugly repercussions.
Under the Air Corporations Act of 1953, Parliament voted to nationalise nine airlines โ€” Air India, Air Services of India, Airways (India), Bharat Airways, Deccan Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Indian National Airways, Kalinga Airlines, and Air India International.
Overnight, the business of running airlines by private citizens was made illegal, with punishments ranging from a minimum fine of Rs. 1,000 to a maximum imprisonment for three months, or both โ€” for each flight.
The political success of this single Act consolidated governmentโ€™s attitude towards the private sector and set the pace for nationalisation of several other sectors โ€” life insurance (1956)
โ€” banking (1969 and 1980)
โ€” general insurance (1972)
โ€” mining (1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975)
Each of these sectors languished. The lack of accountability, the pretentious and โ€˜nobleโ€™ objectives served only the political class and its attached bureaucracies.
Narratives of films like Kala Patthar (1979) encouraged this financial emergency in the form of nationalisation.
The entrepreneur was relegated to being the bad guy of India. The jobs enterprises offered, the prosperity they brought, the taxes they paidโ€ฆall fell by the wayside.
Delusions of grandeur rather than economic growth reigned supreme, particularly:
โ€” PM Jawaharlal Nehruโ€™s 1948 and 1956 industrial policies
โ€” PM Indira Gandhiโ€™s 1973 and 1980 policies
Of all privatisations, that of Air India has been the most contentious. Its over-paid employees successfully scuttled the process during UPA govt. That it has taken seven years for this govtt to fix it shows how deeply entrenched these petty people with petty interests are.
Best wishes to the @TataCompanies!
First, for having bid back what was brutally snatched out of their hands in 1953.
And second, to raise Indiaโ€™s civil aviation experience to the skies, become a global player in the sector.

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