Normally, having a disinvestment secretary from West Bengal is the surest sign the government doesn’t intend to do much in this area. Sunil Mitra’s appointment as the central government’s disinvestment secretary, however, could be quite different.
In his 34-year career as a civil servant, Mitra has done precisely what he is expected to do in his new job. He is credited with restructuring public enterprises in the Left-run state of West Bengal and has done some pretty radical privatisation as well.
He played, for instance, a critical role in the restructuring programme that was supported by the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID). He managed this by balancing the needs of the unions, the government and the DFID.
To ensure political opposition was kept under control, he authored a three-track policy on PSU restructuring/divestment.
The policy, finalised in 2005, said that structurally unviable PSUs would be closed down and the money got from their assets put to economic use. In the case of PSUs that needed to be made viable, divestment of up to 74 per cent of their stake to a strategic partner was to be considered. The policy said that these measures alone could ensure both optimum levels of employment as well as keep a check on the financial liabilities of the state PSUs.
Mitra’s biggest success, of course, was the sale of the Great Eastern Hotel in Kolkata in 2005, a feat achieved 17 years after it was first proposed the hotel be restructured.
None of these achievements came easy. In each case, there was an aggressive internal communications drive, aimed at getting a buy-in from all key stakeholders. On occasion, the internal communications process took five years, the design and implementation of the restructuring another three years.
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There has been, of course, a lot more to Mitra’s career than just the restructuring and divestment he carried out as secretary of the departments of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction.
As power secretary, his last assignment with the West Bengal government prior to taking charge of disinvestment at the Centre, Mitra restructured the state utilities. An indication of how successful he was is the fact that, after the reforms, the state-owned power utilities are a source of funds — the only extra-budgetary one — for the state government. Amazingly, this was done only through efficiency gains — without any budgetary support or subsidy from the government.
Mitra has also spent a few years at the Centre between 1986 and 1996.
On deputation from the state government, he served as deputy secretary/director (systems) in the defence ministry with the responsibility for centralised electronics system procurements in communications, radar and electronic warfare technologies for all the armed forces and inter-services organisation. After an obligatory cooling-off period in the state, in this case for 10-months, he served as Counsellor in the Indian embassy in Moscow from 1992 to 1996 and was tasked with re-building defence co-operation with the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Mitra has had some pretty challenging assignments in the past, and his latest job promises to be no different. His balancing act in West Bengal might just come in handy when he deals with some difficult UPA allies while selling what many in the government continue to insist is family silver.