India, Jan. 5 -- As we herald another new year, almost a century after Lt Col (later Sir) Francis Claude Shelmerdine established India's Department of Civil Aviation in 1927 and went on to become the country's first Director General of Civil Aviation, he must surely be turning in his grave. The sordid IndiGo saga has exposed the tender underbelly of Indian aviation and the DGCA alike.

The year 2025 is one that Indian aviation would rather forget. Looked at more charitably, however, 2026 could yet prove to be a harbinger of much-needed change.That golden generation of airmen and aviation traditions-beginning with the great J.R.D. Tata, Aspi Engineer, Purshottam Kabali, Shelmerdine and Sir Victor Sassoon, and carried forward by Indian Air ...