J R D Tata founded Air India in 1932 and 77 years later, the responsibility of reviving the crisis-ridden airline could fall on his successor Ratan Tata.

Aviation minister Praful Patel is setting up an international advisory board comprising prominent people, including former heads of major global airlines, to helm the turnaround of Air India. And top government sources said Ratan Tata has already been approached to head this board.

"The board will be headed by someone of the eminence of a luminary like Ratan Tata and will be set up within a month," Patel told TOI on Tuesday.

Incidentally, this could be Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata's second homecoming at Air India. He was the non-executive chairman of AI's board in the late 1980s.

Patel is seeking to revamp Air India's top management. "We are going to revamp the management and will issue global ads for a chief operating officer, who could be an expat, to assist the CMD," he said. "The international advisory board for AI would comprise former chiefs of major airlines and would set the turnaround path for AI. I am working on a complete rejig."