In a statement made on Wednesday, the civil aviation secretary noted that India is not presently considering the sale of stakes in Air India, the state-run carrier and the helicopter services provider Pawan Hans Helicopters.

Earlier in the month of December, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had noted that Air India had planned to sell not less than 15 percent of its equity through an initial public offering in a move to raise funds required for its further expansion.

However due to the present turmoil in the local and international share markets, investors are losing their appetite for new issues. This condition has forced not less than 10 Indian firms to significantly delay or shelve their IPOs that value about USD$4 billion during this year. Notably, this outlook seems to remain constantly downbeat for the rest of this year.

While being questioned about a share issue, Secretary Ashok Chawla told the reporters, "The ministry is not actively looking at it.�

According to the recently released government data, Air India holds not less than 18.3 percent of the domestic market of India. Most notably, Air India was merged with the state-run Indian Airlines in August 2007.

According to the expectation by the analysts, it appears that the Indian government is likely to revive its drive for privatisation following the winning of the confidence voting in the month of July clearly parting ways with the communist allies, who thoroughly opposed the selling of stakes in the state-owned firms.