When Narendra Modi took office as India's prime minister just over four years ago, a top priority for the economic reformers who had supported his candidacy was the privatization of India's incredibly inefficient public sector. Among their biggest targets was the state-run airline, Air India -- a clunky, loss-making behemoth that has long been rendered irrelevant by buzzy domestic competitors. I would personally have cheered that outcome:

After the first attempt at selling state-owned Air India to private entities failed as the expressions of interest (EoIs) called for by the government received zero bids, aviation research and consultancy firm Capa (India) says the government should divest 100% equity in the airline and not retain a 24% share in the ailing airline.

What went wrong? Who messed it up? The day after Air India disinvestment failed to take off, government officials across ministries and departments spent hours trying to find an answer to these questions. Many of those spearheading the sale put the blame on the dealmakers and advisors for failing to attract potential bidders, others pointed at the industry for the fiasco.

India’s high-profile offer to sell a stake in Air India failed to attract a single bidder by the Thursday deadline, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target for offloading stakes in government-held firms. The no-show by buyers in a booming aviation market underlines the challenges the government faces in fixing the debt-laden national carrier, and was a setback for Modi’s credentials as a reformer willing to step away from running money-losing businesses.

With just a day left for submitting the expressions of interest (EoI) for Air India, civil aviation secretary RN Choubey on Wednesday said that so far they have not received even a single bid. After having extended the last day for submitting the EoIs from May 14 to May 31, the secretary also said that any further extension would not be given. However, Choubey still exuded confidence, adding that he expects bids to come at the last hour.

World’s cheapest airlines: Even as the low-cost carriers IndiGo and Air India Express make it to the the top five cheapest airlines in the world in providing international connectivity, other Indian carriers Spicejet, Vistara, Go Air etc too find a mention in the domestic list. Most notably, Air India Express, the wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run carrier Air India has been ranked second and the budget carrier IndiGo placed at fifth position in a Global Flight Pricing Report prepared by Melbourne-based Rome2rio — a multimodal travel planning site.

The government is in dilemma over Air India privatisation and is rightly re-tweaking the details after couple of bidders pulled out. However, at the same time the government is being prudent as aviation secretary R N Choubey now says that the national carrier may not be sold if they do not get the right price.

Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey on Tueday said the government could decide against selling state-run Air India if it does not get "adequate" price for it.

"The government has the right to sale or not to sale Air India if the bid price is found to be inadequate," Choubey told reporters here, even as he expressed confidence that ailing airline will fetch a good price.

An Air India plane from Goa with 143 passengers onboard made an emergency landing here after a hydraulic failure, a spokesperson fro the airline said.

A full emergency was declared at the airport at 8.36 PM as flight AI 662 made the emergency landing. "It landed safely with 143 passengers onboard," the spokesperson said.

State-run carrier Air India may have to pay a penalty of $8.8 million to 323 passengers of its May 9 Delhi-Chicago flight, which was delayed as a fallout of withdrawal of relaxations given on flight duty time limitation (FDTL) of the crew.

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