Divesting it right

The first deal will clear the path for many more. It will also be the toughest to execute

Strategic disinvestment or privatisation is back on the top of the agenda — for the government which is making yet another bid to sell its stake in public sector companies (PSUs) and, therefore, for the many vested and ideological interests which oppose privatisation. The Modi government announced its intention to restart the strategic disinvestment programme in February 2016, 13 years after the last PSU was privatised in the Vajpayee era. Despite cabinet approvals for the strategic disinvestment of at least 25 PSUs, beginning in 2016, not one transaction has materialised in almost four years. That is unusual in a government