The government is working on a plan to nurse sick public sector units back to health before any disinvestment takes place in these companies, chairman of the PSUs revamp board Nitish Sengupta has said.
Coal India, which is likely to hit the capital markets in October, "will be in the list of Fortune 500 the day it is listed on the stock exchange," the head of a government panel on public sector units said on Monday.
The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises wants to examine the grave financial problems of Air India, but neither the Civil Aviation Ministry nor the national carrier has responded to the BRPSE offer.
BRPSE's new chairman Nitish Sengupta has suggested that at least three ailing companies, which have been referred to the board, hive off some of their land and get into real estate development to become profitable again.
"This money will be used for the revival and modernisation of the PSUs," BRPSE Chairman Nitish Sengupta said. He said instead of providing budgetary support, the option of land sale could be considered for the revival of units in some cases. Elgin Mills in Kanpur, Kolkata-based National Jute Mills, National Textiles Corporation and HMT are among those which have been permitted to sell their surplus lands.
Though a pyrrhic victory for the BJP, the party he chose to align himself against his former mentor Banerjee, it nevertheless is being seen as a morale booster for the saffron party as his former party, the Trinamool Congress under Banerjee's leadership, has garnered an overwhelming 213 seats out of 292 seats which went to polls.
A victory in Nandigram would not only establish him as one of the tallest BJP leaders in Bengal but would push him miles ahead of others in the chief ministerial race if the party is voted to power.