With the new financial year kicking in and the equity markets showing signs of stability, the government is expected to soon initiate its divestment programme with renewed vigour.
While near-term performance is difficult to predict after a huge run-up, fund managers believe the PSU theme's prospects remain sound over the medium to long term.
The decision, taken by the Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, was based on recommendations given by the Second Pay Revision Committee. The package would include revision in Dearness Allowance and other allowances, besides performance related incentives, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan told reporters.
Note proposes more checks, transparent data bank in land sale or lease.
Finance Ministry officials are engaging in hectic parleys with the PSUs to speed up the process so that the disinvestments can take place in the December and March quarters.
In a bid to match its private sector rivals in providing better customer services, telecom public sector undertaking, BSNL has invited bids from companies to set up call centres at four zonal locations, including Gurgaon, for its broadband and cellul
It was touted as a game changer but big-ticket privatisation has been a mixed bag as the government faces unanticipated challenges of lukewarm investor response, employee union agitation and legal hurdles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's often-repeated statement 'the government has no business to be in business' guided the drawing up of an ambitious privatisation pipeline. While Air India sale succeeded, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) divestment failed.
Public-sector enterprise stocks have seen a good run thus far in 2023-24 (FY24), with the S&P BSE PSU Index surging by over 26 per cent during the period, compared to an 11 per cent increase in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a social security scheme to be implemented as a pilot project as a prelude to a central legislation for the unorganised sector
These include increasing the public float in listed companies to 35 per cent from 25 per cent, increasing the minimum statutory limit for FPI investment in a firm from 24 per cent to the sectoral foreign investment, and lowering government holding in listed public sector undertakings.
The Centre has identified 50 new public sector undertakings (PSUs) to be put on the capital markets for selling 10 per cent of government stakes to raise funds for development programmes.
Only strategic sales can serve the purpose of disinvestment, by freeing PSUs from govt control.
Elections are not won or lost by expounding on such macro-economic matters. For the aam admi, what matters in manifestos are promises that will improve their quality of life, notes Vinayak Chatterjee.
The UPA-II may not talk about this, but it continues to implement its programme to revive ailing PSUs by investing fresh capital.
The AAP on Wednesday last had posted a video story on 'X' featuring industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Modi. The next day, the party posted a picture of Adani and Modi, and alleged that the prime minister works for the industrialist and not the people.
"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 (20 of 2023), the central government hereby appoints the 1st day of October, 2023, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force," according to a notification issued by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
While the Narendra Modi government has stuck to its stand that pending payment is Rs 12,343 crore, MSMEs calim outstanding amount is Rs 2-3 trillion. Moreover, MSME ministry's SAMADHAN portal has been of little help.
Four left parties on Wednesday asked the government to stop divestment of 35 public sector undertakings including BHEL, PowerGrid Corporation and Power Finance Corporation saying the move would adversely affect the development of PSUs and would also
The SC laments that they spend most of their time in covering their back rather than in achieving their goals.
After netting a mere Rs 1,570 crore in 2005-06 and 2006-07, divestment proceeds could well touch Rs 5,000 crore in this financial year.
Talks between the government and striking oil Public Sector Undertakings failed late Thursday night over the officers' insistence on getting an immediate hike in their wages as the agitation threatened a major disruption in supply of petrol across the country. Deora is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday afternoon on the issue after the meeting of the Union cabinet in the morning.
Saddled with huge arrears from the PSUs and the private sector, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation on Tuesday launched an action plan, including the attachment of property and freezing of bank accounts.
The huge reduction in the government's support for Bhavini has brought down the overall budgetary allocation for nuclear power schemes by 20 per cent.
'No retaliatory tariffs now. You can retaliate after a few months.' 'Today, there is no need to retaliate because it is a question of long term benefits.'
Presently, the list that we have of profit-making PSUs for divestment is based on financial numbers from 20007-08.
The Mumbai-based firm said it has signed an pact with the Department of Health, Government of Brazil and Farmanguinhos, the largest public sector undertaking in health care in Brazil, to supply the drug.
Reliance Industries is understood to have declined an offer by the government to pick up an additional five per cent equity in IPCL for raising its stake to 51 per cent
The government has given up plans to build grain reserves abroad finding it difficult to do so in view of the high food prices internationally. It had assigned four public sector undertaking companies to explore the possibility of building a 2-3 million tonne (mt) grain reserve to facilitate economical import during a domestic shortage and avoid extravagant imports.
In Budget 2020-21, the Department of Space has been allocated Rs 13,949.09 crore, of which Rs 8,228.63 crore has been earmarked for capital expenditure.
Soon after the trust vote in Parliament on July 22, the finance ministry hopes to push through a series of non-legislative reforms, chief among them disinvestment of minority stakes in around 10 central public sector undertakings by listing them on the stock market.
The number of times public sector undertakings (PSUs) have held conference calls with investors, their capital management, and debt financing are among the parameters that the Centre will use to judge their performance for the first time, a senior official in the know said. The government will evaluate PSUs for FY22 based on new parameters that were finalised by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) in consultation with the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) last year, the official said. The government had included more conditions in the memorandum of understandings (MoUs) - used to set annual targets - that public sector enterprises sign with the DPE every year. These included a consistent dividend policy, which seeks to transfer dividends by PSUs every quarter; and market capitalisation or share price improvement over the sectoral index on an annual average basis for listed companies.
The Left has warned the government to scrap its plans to offload BHEL shares in the market.
India's sourcing from China may not necessarily be for cost-effectiveness alone but also for the lack of domestic qualified bidders, technology or other know-how.
Govt's divestment plans encourage funds to bet big on state-owned firms.
The report has revealed that BSNL, which contributed around 98 per cent to the financial irregularities, failed to pay a government loan amounting to Rs 7,500 crore (Rs 75 billion) in spite of having adequate cash reserves in short-term deposits with other banks during the year 2005-06 and 2006-07.
