PSUs divestment: The act of setting ambitious targets and falling short

The current fiscal year (2020-21) for divestment has been challenging, with the Covid-19 pandemic having dragged the markets to record lows

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has only been able to meet the divestment targets for two of the seven years it has been in power.

In the previous and current fiscal years, the government set ambitious targets for itself — only to defer them as the planned sales didn’t take off.

In the previous fiscal year, the government had set a target of Rs 90,000 crore, with plans to privatise Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Container Corporation (Concor) of India, and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI).  None of these got completed last year. Hoping to get them completed this fiscal