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"Fiscal prudence and disinvestment of public sector units -- all these issues will be tackled by the Finance Minister in the Budget," Singh told reporters after the second round of swearing in of Union Ministers at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The Prime Minister said economic growth would not come at the cost of fiscal prudence. "We would ensure economic growth momentum but at the same time fiscal prudence will be kept in mind," he said.
A host of companies waiting for the government nod for disinvestment include Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), railway consultancy firm RITES, National Aviation Company, and Ircon.
The government has already cleared the disinvestment of NHPC and Oil India but could not tap the capital market due to the prevalent negative sentiment.
Fund mobilisation by the government by way of initial public offers (IPOs) declined in 2008. There was only one PSU IPO, which was that of Rural Electrification Corporation, worth Rs 1,421 crore.
In 2007, there were four PSU IPOs, including those of Power Grid Corporation and Power Finance Corporation, worth Rs 5,580 crore.
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Govt. decision on dis-invest is timely and need not be delayed any more.The money realised from this can be utilised in execution of such schemes which will benefit the people at large and not only employees of these undertakings.Communists have been opposing these disvestments because of their selfish motives as they donot want to annoy their emloyees who are their vote banks.
Most of the State Public enterprises are making huge losses but due to nexus between bureaucrats and politicians, these are still running at the cost of public tax money. Central Govt must ask State Governments to manage these units professionally and show the result within fixed time limit otherwise they should be disinvested.
Disinvestment in decadent university system is also long overdue.Many so called central universities are siphoning off millions fromthe public funds in name of research and development. But what is theactual standing of research from Indian Universities ?? Let us make the university system private as in US or Canada, this will ensure quality eduacation to our masses and society too will be spared from bearing the expenses for lavishness and honeymoon trips abroad by Professors. In an industry funded R