No 'suitable' candidate to head Air India from August: government

New Delhi: Government on March 4 failed to find a ‘suitable’ candidate to head the loss-making national carrier Air India, whose chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan is on a 10-months extension, which expires in August this year. Public Enterprises Selection Board, which conducted interviews for selecting a new CMD for the state-run airline, and did not find any candidate “suitable”, and recommended that the Government may choose an "appropriate" course of further action for selection, official sources said.

The Board had short listed seven candidates, including a senior Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer and a director on Air India board, and had called them for an interview on March 4, sources said, adding however only three of them appeared on March 4 before the Selection panel.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Ministry had sought a two years extension for Nandan, who is a 1982 batch UP cadre IAS and joined Air India in August 2011, the Government allowed him to continue in the top job only till August this year and ordered that the process to chose the new CMD be started immediately.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), approved the extension of Rohit Nandan as the airline's chairman and managing director till August 21, 2015, or till the appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier," an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training in October last year had said.