In March 2018 the government invited bids for 76 percent of Air India. In May it announced: “No bids received for Air India.” In January 2020 it tried again, this time for the whole airline. Later that year it eased the terms. As the Free Press Journal put it, the government “gives flexibility to investors to decide on the amount of Air India debt.”
In October 2021 the Tata group made the winning bid, 18,000 crore rupees.