Rahul Bhatia pays tribute to Ratan Tata

I had the occasion to engage with Mr Ratan Tata when I returned from college in 1985 and discussed the opportunity of a three-way collaboration on manufacturing digital telephone switches (exchanges) between the TATA Group, Nortel (then known as Northern Telecom) and the earlier avatar of InterGlobe.

While the initiative didn’t come to fruition, Mr Tata's refreshing openness and disarming humility left an indelible impression on me.

As we all know, Mr Tata had a deep passion for flying machines and I was only too pleased to see Air India return to where it truly belonged.

While I am much too small a man to say this, in tribute to Mr Tata's love for flight and his vision for the future of Indian Aviation, IndiGo will, ever so modestly, walk alongside Air India to secure India's rightful seat at the centre-stage of Global Aviation.

At this very difficult moment, my thoughts are with the Tata family, and the employees of the TATA Group.