New <i>navratnas</i> - Power Finance, BEL, HAL

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today announced that the government has decided to confer the 'navratna' status on three central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) - Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Bharat Electronics (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).

The navratna status will greatly enhance the financial and administrative powers of the boards of the PSUs. They will now be able to forge joint ventures and form wholly-owned subsidiaries in the country and/or abroad and invest up to 15% of their net worth in one project limited to Rs 1,000 crore.

The three PSUs now join the ranks of the already existing navratnas viz. BHEL, NTPC, SAIL, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL, ONGC, IOC and MTNL.

The minister also unveiled the corporate governance guidelines for central public sector enterprises. The guidelines will be applicable to both listed and unlisted PSUs.