In India, the situation with domestic carriers is pretty grim with just three months of losses being pegged at $3.6 billion; but did airlines actually have a chance to be better-prepared

Government has already issued the first set of clarifications for Air India bidders on the 'confidentiality undertaking' listed out in the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) issued on January 27

As part of efforts to clean up the balance sheet of Air India, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 58,000 crore, little over half of the amount is to be repaid by way of proceeds from the issuance of bonds by Air India Assets Holdings

Packaging a deal is just one part of the tale; the sale process for Air India could fail again without a buyer having such a big appetite.

AIATSL was formed with an aim to provide unified ground handling services (Ramp, Passenger and Baggage and Cargo Handling) at most of the airports in India under the brand name 'Air India Airport Services'

The funds will be raised by sale of Air India subsidiaries Air Transport Services Limited, Air India Engineering Services Limited and Airline Allied Services Limited

The Finance Ministry is reworking strategic sale procedure to ensure outright sale of CPSEs within 4 months of issuance of documents to potential investors

The government attempted to sell the debt-laden carrier in May last year but failed. In June, a committee led by Finance minister Arun Jaitley decided to scrap the stake-sale plan for the time being.

Such CPSEs will have an option to either hive-off non-core assets to a Special Purpose Vehicle or transfer sale proceeds of non-core assets to an escrow account

The government has stuck to its Rs 80,000 crore disinvestment target for 2017/18, even as data from DIPAM shows proceeds of only Rs 61,000 crore so far through 24 completed transactions. Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, talks to Rajeev Dubey & Dipak Mondal. Edited excerpts:

The government will provide a total of Rs 3,900 crore for servicing Air India's loans transferred to the SPV, according to interim Budget presented on February 1.