Kharola takes charge as Air India CMD

New Delhi, Dec 11 : Senior bureaucrat Pradeep Singh Kharola on Monday took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India.
An 1985 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, he was presently Manging Director of the Bengaluru Metro.
Kharola replaces Rajiv Bansal, Financial Advisor to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, and also holding additional charge of Air India CMD.
His appointment comes at a time when a ministerial group has been formed to look into the modalities of Air India's divestment process.
The Air India-specific Alternative Mechanism, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has been mandated to guide the strategic divestment process and to decide on key issues such as treatment of the airline's debt and hiving-off of its assets.
The demerger and strategic divestment of its three profit-making subsidiaries, the quantum of disinvestment and the universe of bidders is also on the group's agenda.