The Non- resident Indians(NRIs) have been allowed by the cabinet to acquire up to 100 per cent of the state- owned Air India and has approved 72 changes to the companies law which is said to pave a way for the direct overseas listing and decriminalizing a host of offenses under the act.
The consolidation of ten public sector banks into four which has been previously announced, has also been approved and would take into effect from the 1st of April.
Prakash Javadekar who is the minister of information and broadcasting has said to the reporters in a briefing that the decision that has been taken on Air India is said to be a milestone decision where the NRIs who are the citizens of India would get a permission for investing 100 per cent in the airlines.
The entire stake has been put by the government in Air India up for sale. Previously around 49 per cent in the carrier could be owned up by the Non- resident Indians.
An attempt has been made in the year 2018 in order to sell as much as 76 per cent and it has not been successful.
It has been said that no change has been made regarding the limit for the overseas investors in the national carrier which also includes the foreign airlines and it is said to remain at 49 per cent directly or indirectly.
The Union minister Prakash Javadekar has said that it has been approved by the Cabinet allowing the Non- resident Indians to hold up to hundred per cent stake in Air India.
It has been said that allowing the hundred per cent investment by the NRIs in the Air India carrier would also not be considered as violation of the Substantial Ownership and the Effective Control (SOEC) norms and that the investments of the NRIs would be treated as the domestic investments.
Under the framework Substantial Ownership and the Effective Control (SOEC), which is followed globally in the airline industry, it says that a carrier that flies overseas from a particular country should be substantially owned by the government of that particular country or by the nationals of that country.
The government of India has come up with a preliminary information memorandum (PIM) for the disinvestment of Air India on the 27th of the month of January which has proposed the selling of hundred per cent stake in Air India along with the budget airline Air India Express and the fifty per cent stake of the national carrier in AISATS which is said to be an equal joint venture with the Singapore Airlines.
Under the disinvestment plan that has been done recently, the successful bidder would have to take over only debt which is of worth Rs 23,286.5 crore while the liabilities would be decided basing on the current assets which is present at the time when the transaction has been closed.
 have been allowed by the cabinet to acquire up to 100 per cent of the state- owned Air India and has approved 72 changes to the companies law which is said to pave a way for the direct overseas listing and decriminalizing a host of offenses under the act.){kind=link}