Historically, public sector units were conceived of under the assumption that they will control the 'commanding heights' of the Indian economy, which were necessary for rapid industrial growth but where private investment was unwilling to enter.
Work on disinvesting government holdings may gather pace after the first week of August. Administrative ministries of around 15 Public Sector Undertakings have been asked to give feedback on the feasibility of coming out with initial public offers by then.
The survey also suggested passage of the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2005. Noting that the credit market suffers from structural rigidities, the survey said, it may have been reinforced in the recent years due to a high credit demand encouraging the banks to raise deposits at higher rates for maintaining long term liquidity.
Earlier this month, the corporate affairs ministry had written to various ministries including telecom, railways and steel seeking directions for public sector units under their administrative control for exempting Satyam from submitting audited balance sheets while bidding for projects of the state-owned firms.
Punjab National Bank has the largest share.
Contrary to the general impression, the revival of under performing public sector companies is not a costly exercise with Board of Reconstruction of Public Enterprises coming out with recommendations.
The decision to improve the salary structure of officers at board level and below, along with supervisory staff, was taken at the Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The divestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) may hit a fuel price hurdle, according to officials dealing with the matter. They pointed out that the inconspicuous administered price regime could hamper the prospects for potential buyers of BPCL. A senior oil ministry official said public-sector oil-marketing companies (OMCs) take a hit when they sell petrol, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), three of the most popular petroleum products in the country.
M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, soaring around 7 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid, Infosys and ICICI Bank. On the other hand, HUL, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finance and ITC were among the laggards.
The Left on Tuesday accused the government of asking central public sector enterprises to raise capital from a sinking stock market and saw a game to hand over their shares to private sector at throwaway prices.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the participation of the private sector in the entire range of space activities, including planetary exploration missions, Union minister Jitendra Singh said. The newly-created Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) will provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure, Singh, who is the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, said.
The government is likely to infuse additional capital of Rs 20,000 crore in the public sector banks next financial year to meet Basel III global capital risk norms.
An investment banker handling the PSU issues said, "When employees pick application forms, these typically have stamps of brokers. But there was no clarity who will bear the cost. Now with this provision, government will pay 25 bps. It is lesser than retail because there is often no marketing effort from the broker, as a lot of it is done by the company itself."
A few state-owned banks such as IDBI Bank, Union Bank, Indian Overseas Bank have announced results for FY14.
Control over PSU banks is what is allowing the government to drive this scheme.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum recorded profit on the sale of petrol and diesel, the first in three years, on the back of falling international oil prices, industry sources said. The three firms are moping up a neat Rs 11.99 per litre margin on petrol and Rs 4.13 a litre on diesel sale.
Public sector oil firms plan to set up over 4600 petrol stations and 907 LPG sale agencies in the current fiscal, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.
IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance and Ultratech Cement were prominent gainers. NSE Nifty rose 176.65 points to 14,867.35.
The government on Thursday approved a proposal to inject Rs 12,517 crore in public sector banks to help them enhance the lending activity and meet the capital adequacy norms.
Fitch Ratings on Monday said the plan to privatise two state-owned banks in the current financial year ending March 2022 could face delays amid renewed challenges for the Indian banking sector due to the second wave of Covid-19. The government in the Budget announced plans to privatise two public-sector banks. NITI Aayog has been entrusted with the task of selecting the banks and one general insurance company for the privatisation.
The Planning Commission will finalise in a couple of months a draft on an integrated energy policy, which will include its views on merger of oil public sector undertakings.
A public sector unit employee on an average received an annual salary of Rs 6.09 lakh (Rs 609,000) in 2009-10, with total emoluments increasing more than 100 per cent in the last four years.
'The household sector, which is still the largest contributor of financial savings, has been experiencing a decline in the last six years, and it has fallen below 8% of GDP.'
The Centre has asked him to join North Block on Tuesday but it cannot force an officer to join it without the permission of the state administration, Banerjee told a press conference.
The Public Enterprises Selection Board, which advises and helps government in selection of board members at public sector firms, has started the recruitment process for at least 27 board positions of various PSEs, a number of which have already fallen vacant. Among the Chairman or CMD level vacancies, for which applications are being sought, the positions of HAL Chairman and CMDs at HSL, ECIL, MSTC, STC and BEL would fall vacant between April-June next year.
An additional factor spurring the FMP launches is MFs' desire to retain investors as many such offerings are set to mature over the next two months.
Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday along with ten union leaders of public sector units and Aganwadis from Jammu and Kashmir and drew his attention to the fact that 10 PSUs, Aganwadis and Asha units have not been paid for last eight months.
Over 16 lakh employees working in over 240 central public sector undertakings can soon hope for a salary windfall, with the second Pay Revision Committee for PSUs expected to submit its report by this month end.The report of the sixth pay panel, which recommended an average hike of about 28 per cent to the Central government employees, is under government consideration.
The government also informed that it has been decided to entrust IBPS the responsibility to conduct the common recruitment examination for PSBs.
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