Government has postponed by a month a decision to privatise four of the country's biggest airports pending more inter-ministry consultations, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Friday.
"The proposal has been deferred. The finance and civil aviation ministries have been asked to discuss the proposal in detail," Swaraj told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
"They have been given a one-month period."
She did not give details on the issues slated for discussion between the two ministries.
The civil aviation ministry had put a proposal before the Cabinet to privatise the airports at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in a bid to upgrade them to world standards.
The state-owned Airports Authority of India currently operates the country's more than 120 airports.
The four international airports, even though shabby by world standards, are the country's most profitable and contribute over 60 percent of AAI's revenues.
India threw open several state-dominated infrastructure industries to private companies over the last decade in a bid to supplement government investment and improve the quality of service in one of the world's fastest growing economies.