With the government announcing that the Tatas will eventually be the new owners of Air India, the move will mark the culmination of their long journey to get back in the pilot seat of an airline which was originally set up by J R D Tata as ‘Tata Airlines’ until it was nationalised in 1953. The Tatas made their first abortive attempt to get back in the airline business in the 1990s when they set up an airline with Singapore Airlines.

       The move was initiated by then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao as part of his ‘Look East’ policy. Rao asked his principal ...