Birla, Deveshwar on board loss-making Air India

The government on Wednesday inducted corporate bigwigs Kumar Mangalam Birla and Y C Deveshwar on the board of Air India, a day after seeking Parliament's approval for a supplementary grant for equity infusion in the loss-making national carrier.

The appointment of Birla, head of an over USD 44 billion conglomerate, and Deveshwar, chairman of FMCG giant ITC, is for three years, according to a Personnel Ministry order issued late evening.

The government had on Tuesday sought Parliament's approval for grant of Rs 980 crore as part of equity infusion into Air India under the turnaround plan.

These appointments were cleared by a Cabinet committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had earlier said in an interview to a magazine that though a decision for privatisation of Air India was taken, its execution would be in accordance with the market condition.

The government also appointed private sector executives to four other public sector enterprises.

Shyamvir Saini and Gurmohinder Singh will be non-official independent directors in National Seeds Corporation and Bharat Earth Movers Limited respectively.

Arun Tandon has been appointed a non-official director in Balmer Lawrie and Co Ltd, the order said.

Tapan Kumar Mandal has been named a non-official independent director of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, it said.