Glorious Turnaround of India’s Public Sector

ROLE OF BOARD FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC SECTOR ENTERPRISES 
 

Dr. Nitish Senputa, Chairman, Board For Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises said here today that the PSEs are an inseparable part of the economic development of India. Their role in economic growth has been phenomenal. There is hardly any area of economic activity in the country where these enterprises have not marked their presence. The investment made by Government in PSE through Five Year Plans was mainly to bridge the gap between the investment required in the economy and the investment forthcoming from the private sector to meet the socio-economic objectives of the country. Various Industrial Policy Resolutions have given the guidance to the role and importance of Public sector. 

 On the revival of sick CPSEs he further added that there are certain Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), which have been incurring losses continuously for the last several years and in a number of cases their accumulated losses have surpassed their net worth, making the enterprises financially weak. Though reasons for losses/sickness may vary from unit to unit, sickness in CPSEs has been the subject matter of concern in the Government particularly in the changed economic environment wherein resource generation through commercial functioning of enterprises is of paramount importance. Attempts have been made to overcome the problem of sickness in PSEs through revival of CPSEs through the process of BIFR, Financial restructuring wherever appropriate, formation of joint ventures by induction of partners capable of providing technical, financial and marketing inputs, provision of budgetary support, organizational and business restructuring, manpower rationalization, modernization and technological up-gradation, etc. 

Dr. Sengupta said that the Government had constituted Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) in December, 2004 as a advisory body to address the task of strengthening, modernization, reviving, and restructuring of Central Public Sector enterprises (CPSEs). Since its inception, the proposals in respect of 63 CPSEs have been referred to BRPSE by the concerned administrative Ministry/Department of these CPSE. The Board has held 65 meetings during its last 50 months (December, 2004—January, 2009) and considered 63 CPSEs referred to it. The Board had given its recommendations to Government for revival of 52 CPSE benefiting 283642 employees and closure of 2 CPSEs.