Deal or no deal: Letter to BS on ONGC's HPCL acquisition

The fact that the government is a major shareholder in ONGC means that really nothing has changed

This is with reference to “ONGC-HPCL deal has logic, but can’t address fiscal woes” (January 26). I think the ONGC-HPCL mega deal is merely a case of transferring money from from one pocket of the government to another. It is difficult to call it disinvestment in the strict sense of the term, though technically, it may be so. Both the entities are state controlled; so how does this deal qualify as disinvestment, which should really mean sale to the private sector or to retail investors? This deal fails on this criterion. The deal only makes ONGC an owner of the