The move towards indigenisation of defence procurement creates new opportunities for India's military industrial sector. The Government of India (GoI) has so far released five lists of items for positive indigenisation - these should be manufactured in India, rather than imported. Each item on these lists represents an opportunity for some local firm.
With general elections on the horizon, the government's privatisation bandwagon has almost but stalled as a government wary of being accused of selling family silver opts for minority stake sales on stock exchanges over outright privatisation. The result -- the divestment target for current fiscal year is again likely to be missed. Big ticket privatisation plans such as that of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and CONCOR are already on the backburner and analysts feel meaningful privatisation can happen only after April/May general elections.
The formulations in the declaration in reference to terrorism is going to be to our "satisfaction", Dammu Ravi, secretary (economic relations) in the external affairs ministry said on Monday.
HAL, BEL and MDL feature on Sipri's list of the 100 largest arms producers in the world.
India, the biggest contributor to world demand for oil, will bring into effect in an overhaul of its drilling policy. This comes after more than a year of preparation and will boost the exploration and development of India's oil and gas sector along with increased participation by foreign drillers
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, MP Achuthan (Communist Party of India-Marxist) said that in Kerala public sector oil companies had made it mandatory for people to get Aadhar-linked bank accounts for getting subsidy on liquefied petroleum gas.
'Those betting against PSUs will likely be punished in this upswing.'
'38,162 volunteer doctors, including retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or private doctors have signed up with the government to battle COVID-19 pandemic'
The preferred format would be for the top BJP leadership in the government to reach out to the alliance leaders on a case-to-case basis.
The Slovak Republic's President, Peter Pellegrini, has expressed interest in adopting a tree-planting initiative similar to India's "Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam," launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The inspiration came during a meeting with Indian President Droupadi Murmu, who was on a two-day state visit to Slovakia. During a tree-planting ceremony in Nitra, Murmu highlighted Modi's initiative to plant trees in the name of mothers. Pellegrini was impressed and suggested that Slovakia could consider a similar program. The initiative, launched on World Environment Day last year, encourages people to plant a tree in their mother's name as a symbolic gesture of love and respect.
May dilute stakes in PSUs to 90% instead of big-bang approach
Take the rediff business quiz and see how much you know about the India's public sector companies.
'If the BJP detoxifies the nuclear liability law, it will bring economic, environmental and, most of all, strategic benefits.' 'Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that this Budget promise is met soon -- ideally, before Mr Modi heads to his first meeting with Trump 2.0,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Raising the issue in the legislative council, Leader of Opposition Ambadas Danve said the control of police should be under the state government.
The Government of India amended the General Financial Rules 2017 to enable imposition of restrictions on bidders from countries which share a land border with India on grounds of defence of India, or matters directly or indirectly related thereto including national security, an official statement said.
Whilst substantive public allocations have been made in the infrastructure sector, this strategy is plateauing due to the fiscal deficit constraint, capacity limitation of statal implementing agencies, the declining ability of PSUs, and the precarious situation of the Railways' operating ratio. It is, thus, high time to get the policy compass to point at rejuvenating private sector investments in infrastructure, says Vinayak Chatterjee.
BPCL is a high revenue-earning public-sector undertaking (PSU) and plans to privatise it are completely off the table, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday after assuming charge of the ministry for the second time. "Why would we divest ourselves of highly successful Maharatnas like BPCL," Puri said, arguing the Centre was not in favour of divesting its stake in oil PSUs.
Land resources belonging to ailing companies being pitched to pvt players for new initiatives.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, on Tuesday gave a call for a two-day strike from March 15 to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders. In the Union Budget presented last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the privatisation of two Public Sector Banks (PSBs) as part of its disinvestment plan. The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.
According to the CCEA's decision, unlisted firms with three-year track record of net profit and positive networth will have to come out with Initial Public Offerings.
"A few public sector undertakings have been identified for sale of small portions of the government shareholding in the domestic market and for issue of fresh equity to meet their fund requirements, if required," Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday at the Economic Editors' Conference.
Better protection for depositors and investors was one of the chief considerations in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introducing, on Friday, the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the Lok Sabha to amend four pieces of legislation. This amendment is also to improve audit quality in public-sector banks (PSBs), offer consistency in reporting by banks to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and provide for an increase in the tenure of directors in cooperative banks.
The review will help all the banks find if there is any loophole.
According to data compiled by BS Research Bureau for BSE 100 companies, seven public sector companies -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), Bank of India, Union Bank, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and GAIL -- have reduced their employee costs ranging from one per cent to 21 per cent.
'If private capex has to kick in, there should at least be 2-3 years of visibility.'
Forty-five specialists will soon be joining key posts of joint secretaries, directors and deputy secretaries in different central ministries as part of the Modi government's ambitious plan to infuse fresh talent to further improve ease of governance.
Of the total complaints received in the last fiscal, 57 were against Group A or Group B central government officials, 44 against chairpersons, members and employees of different boards/corporations/autonomous bodies wholly or partially financed by the Centre, and five were in the "others" category, it said.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in public sector refiners, expanding the scope for FDI in the privatisation of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). The approval by the Cabinet will enable the sale of the government's 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL to a foreign buyer, and, at the same time, will open the door for FDI in other public sector companies in the oil sector put up for privatisation.
Disinvestment proceeds of the government could be higher than the estimate of Rs 25,000 crore for 2009-10. The government has already raised Rs 13,621 crore through disinvestment in four public sector companies.Dilution of stake in National Mineral Development Corporation, the fifth public sector undertaking to come out with a public offer this year, is likely to fetch the government more than the remaining Rs 11,388 crore, thereby exceeding even the revised target.
These firms offer job security and lucrative salries.
Concerned over the flight of talent from public sector undertakings to private sector, officers of profit making public sector units have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from December 22 seeking higher salaries.
Domestic institutional investors pumped Rs 2.3 trillion into equities during H1 CY24. Of this, mutual funds contributed 80%.
Public sector undertakings Bharat Earth Movers (BEML), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Power Grid Corporation of India and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), are slated to hit the market with their IPOs.
Says invest Rs 1.2 lakh cr or offer special dividend or give surplus cash back.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) are in talks for a partnership to run private trains. According to officials in the know, the two public sector undertakings (PSUs) are planning to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to run passenger trains on routes for which IRCTC has put in bids. "BHEL will be putting in the money required for private rail service, while IRCTC is going to focus on operational requirements," an official said. "IRCTC's business model has not been capital expenditure-focussed. It has built only operational enhancements," he added. Bids for public private partnerships (PPPs) in passenger train operations were opened last month.
