This is for the first time that the Prime Minister commented on Air India after the divestment proposal failed to take off in May. PM said the government did its bit with "utmost sincerity" for Air India and emphasised the need to differentiate between lack of response to the offer and a policy decision. He further added that the govt has cleared sale of Air India and several other loss-making CPSEs but they are yet to be sold is just a matter of timing and process. It may be noted that policy decisions for strategic divestment of Air India was duly cleared by the Modi Govt but it failed to attract bidders. Under the proposed plan, the govt was to sell 76 per cent stake in Air India along with complete divestment of low-cost arm Air India Express and a 50 per cent stake in Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd -- an equal joint venture with Singapore's SATS. The loss-making airline's market share stood at 12.8 per cent in May, as per official data. At the end of March 2017, the carrier had a debt burden of around Rs 48,877 crore. Out of the total amount, Rs 17,360 crore was related to aircraft and Rs 31,517 crore pertained to working capital loans.