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A parliamentary panel, mandated to examine accounts of central public sector undertakings, will scrutinise the performance of insurance sector PSUs and solar power corporations. The Committee on Public Undertakings (CoPU) will also examine the performance of the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC). The panel headed by BJP's Baijayant Panda will also evaluate the performance of Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL). With the government's push for renewable energy as the engine of growth, the parliamentary committee will hold a comprehensive performance of Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI), according to the list of subjects selected by it. The committee selects from time to time for examination such PSUs or subjects as it deems fit. The ministry or the undertaking concerned is asked to furnish necessary material relating to those subjects for information of the members.
SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara has said the lender would wait for its subsidiaries like SBI General Insurance and SBI Payment to further scale up their operations before monetising them. Scaling up of their operation will increase valuation and ensure better returns for the parent State Bank of India (SBI). When it comes to subsidiaries, their monetisation would be through the capital market, he told PTI in an interview. "The subsidiaries, which would be eligible for this kind of route, would be essentially our SBI General and may be at some stage, SBI Payment Services, but as of now, we don't have any such plan," he said. "Maybe, we would like to scale them up a little more, and then we will think in terms of going to the capital market for monetising our holding in these companies. But not in the current financial year," he added. During the year ended on March 31, 2024, the bank infused additional capital of Rs 489.67 crore in SBI General Insurance Company Ltd. The company has
The CBI has registered an FIR against the managing director of Kerala government PSU Travancore Titanium Products Limited (TTPL) and others in connection with its losses of Rs 120 crore due to alleged irregularities in the hiring of 'MECON, Ranchi, Uttaranchal' as a consultant in 2004. The FIR registered recently also names TTPL former managing director Eapen Joseph. 'MECON, Ranchi, Uttaranchal', was hired as a consultant for the installation of a pollution control plant. The CBI alleged that Joseph abused his official position and committed criminal misconduct to enter into a criminal conspiracy with then officials -- chief manager (marketing) Santosh Kumar and executive director A M Bhaskaran. They allegedly appointed 'MECON, Ranchi, Uttaranchal', a PSU under the steel ministry, as a consultant at a charge of Rs 9 crore instead of the agreed Rs 3.5 crore, the FIR, registered on the directions of the Kerala High Court, said. The FIR lists the MD of TTPL as accused number one but d
Capital expenditure by central public sector enterprises touched about 52 per cent of the Budget target at Rs 3.79 lakh crore in the first half of current fiscal, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. This is higher than the capex by CPSEs in the April-September period of last fiscal. In the first half of previous fiscal, the figure stood at Rs 2.85 lakh crore or 43 per cent of Budget estimates for 2022-23 fiscal. "Capital Expenditure #CAPEX targets by Central Public Sector Enterprises #CPSEs on track with 51.71% of target achieved till September 2023," the finance ministry said in a post on X. Against estimated expenditure of Rs 7.33 lakh crore for full 2023-24, Rs 3.79 lakh crore (approx.) achieved i.e. about 51.71 per cent as on 30th September, 2023, it said. The full year capex by CPSEs was estimated at Rs 6.62 lakh crore in 2022-23 fiscal.
Changing tracks helps. But, not taking the beaten path isn't always helpful. This is the story of two of India's biggest privatisations - Air India and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL). Nearly two decades after the last privatisation, a landmark divestment concluded this year when the loss-making national carrier Air India was sold to the Tatas. This was made possible only after the government changed the track from selling 76 per cent of its stake in the national carrier to putting on block its entire 100 per cent holding as well as giving bidders an option of deciding how much debt they were willing to take over. But in the case of BPCL, the government ignored suggestions of following its time-tested policy of putting on block 26 per cent stake along with management control, just like it had done in the case of Hindustan Zinc and Balco. Instead, it offered its entire 52.98 per cent in the company operating in a sunset sector. The result - just three bids came in, and two of them struggled