AirAsia CEO eyes overseas citizen of India card

Founder and CEO of AirAsia Berhad, Tony Fernandes, said he has applied for an Overseas Citizen of India card, in response to allegations of AirAsia India being a “foreign-controlled” airline. A Malaysian, his father roots back to India which makes him eligible for an OCI card. Addressing the claims, he said, “This whole foreign thing is bizarre to me. Naresh Goyal lives in London and is an NRI, SpiceJet used to be owned by an American, IndiGo has tonnes of American shareholders and in fact there is more foreign shareholding than local shareholding in that company, I am told the GoAir lives in Turkey on a boat... so they are all NRIs. But what is important is that they are creating jobs in India, bringing investments in the country as well as creating tourism. I have applied for an OCI card. Then I will be the same as Naresh Goyal and everyone else.”