Back in the sky

The crippling pilots' strike may be over, but nothing's ever smooth sailing when it comes to Air India

The crippling pilots' strike may be over, but nothing's ever smooth sailing when it comes to Air India. First the government dithered over reinstating the sacked pilots, and now the national carrier has decided to withhold the salaries of the pilots who struck work, despite apparently having earlier promised not to. We can expect to hear more on this in the days ahead.

Then of course Dilli faces the bigger question about the future of Air India. Some believe that Vayalar Ravi, the civil aviation minister, and his babus, have missed an opportunity to address that. Though, during the strike, they did take matters in hand rather publicly and negotiated a settlement with the pilots, the expected follow-up actions on restructuring the beleaguered airline have been strangely missing. So is it back to AI's tired old ways? We'll know soon enough.

Baar bar?
After the conviction of Sri Lankan-born hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam for insider trading, Dilli is deeply interested in what the future holds for Rajat Gupta, until recently India's pride and one of our most respected business leaders. His sudden fallen from grace is due to his links with Rajaratnam.

Though he has not been charged by the US authorities so far, it is already clear that Gupta's high-flying reputation may have crash landed.

Already, corporate India who had anointed him a poster boy is now in a hurry to distance themselves from him. Now the big question being asked in Indian boardrooms is whether Gupta will actually face jail time or simply be fined and barred from serving on a company's board again.

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