Government Kicks off Disinvestment Programme

As anticipated, the government of India has decided to disinvest stake from blue chips public sector companies – Coal India, OnGC and National Hydro Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) to generate Rs.45,000 crores. 

However, the dates were not finalized according to media reports. The cabinet committee has finalized the decision for disinvestment on Wednesday. 

The disinvestment process move by the government would help the economy to gain further momentum, as it has been reeling under the clutches of slow down. 

The shine in manufacturing sector and down in the inflation statistics would help the boost the growth path for the Indian economy. 

In his budget, the finance minister had proposed the disinvestment receipt of Rs. 58,000 crore during the current fiscal year. The government is on the path to meet is target for the disinvestment receipts for the current year. 

The sentiment of investors would be high as the government is seen keen on bring back the growth as well as the confidence of investors.

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50K vacancies to be filled up in PSU banks - P. Chidambaram

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had a meeting with PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) banks' heads on Wednesday and after the meeting he addressed the press. While talking to the press he said that in this fiscal 50,000 vacancies are to be filled up in the PSU banks of India.

Talking to reporters he said, PSU banks are expected to open 10,000 branches all over India, including 2000 Regional Rural banks. Adding more he also said, as the new branches needs human resources, PSU banks are expected to hire close to 50,000 people in this fiscal.

As on March 31, 2012 - PSU banks had a sanctioned strength of 8 Lakh employees and in the last fiscal recruitment for 63,000 vacancies has been done. Among the PSU banks, State Bank of India (SBI) has recruited the highest, 20-22,000 people, in the last fiscal.

As per the statement of Finance minister, this fiscal bank would follow the same trend and recruit higher number of personnel for around 50,000 jobs.

Entities like Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) has been conducting exams all over India to choose the best personnel for banking sector, since few years - including urban and Regional Rural banks (RRBs). Recently IBPS has announced the exams for RRBs.

Apart from that P. Chidambaram also said about stalled projects and he had given importance to re-initiate these projects while talking with the banks' heads.

Above all, this is a good news for students preparing for banking sectors, as this fiscal the recruitment will be high and there chances to get into a bank is more.

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Disinvestment of PSUs could boost the Economy?

Indian economy has been reeling under the global slowdown and the performance of various sectors show sign of slow progress. The growth of 5 per cent of GDP is the lowest figures as estimated for the last fiscal year.

Need of the hours is for the strong fiscal policy and economic reform from the government and more liquidity pumping from the apex bank. The Reserve Bank of India, considering the fiscal health of the economy, moderated the cash reserve ratio and key interest rates recently.

The RBI will also add around many thousand crores rupees into the system through open market operation, which is one of the core credit policies of the apex bank. And the government also need huge amount of money that could be used in various social welfare schemes.

For that the government may favour disinvesting stakes in the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in the next fiscal year 2013-14, that says there would encouragement for disinvestment policies in the days to come.

The disinvestment of stakes in PSUs has been normal process, as many previous government of India have backed and carried out major disinvestments to bail out the economy.

The successful disinvestment of stakes will help the government to generate funds to meet the requirements and support many social welfare schemes in the country.

Here is the list of companies; stakes of these companies were sold through disinvestment process in India:

• NBCC
• ONGC
• MOIL LTD.
• COAL INDIA LTD.
• POWER GRID CORP.OF INDIA LTD.
• ENGINEERS INDIA LTD.
• SJVN LTD.
• NMDC LTD.
• RURAL ELECTRIFICATION CORP.LTD.
• NTPC LTD.
• OIL INDIA LTD.
• NHPC LTD.
• SHIPPING CORP.OF INDIA LTD.,THE
• POWER FINANCE CORP.LTD.

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NPA is reflection of the slowdown in the economy – P. Chidambaram

Photo Credit - The Hindu Business Line

Today Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had a meeting with nationalized bank chiefs about making strategies to recover from the economic slowdown. The FM said to the fellow meeting members that Govt. will be working to make a strategy to help the industry segments which are affected by the economic slowdown.

After the meeting with Bank chiefs FM addressed to the press and said - “If the economy improves and growth improves, the sectors (which are not doing well) will recover. But in the meanwhile, we will have to do some handholding and try to help these sectors recover”. In the above address he also mentioned about the Non Performing Assets (NPAs) where he said: “NPA is reflection of the slowdown in the economy’’. He said Govt. is making strategies to look upon the rising NPAs and find other ways to help them perform better. If we go on to the statistics NPAs of Public Sector Banks (PSUs) has been increased by 0.98 percent in this fiscal year due to slow in industries like construction, telecom infrastructure, textiles, food processing and steel.

There are some positive points mentioned by FM where he included that housing and automobile sectors have been doing well in this subdued economy. FM also mentioned that Government will do some capital infusion of around Rs. 15,000 Crore to PSUs like Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra.

Earlier this week it is announced that FM will be meeting National bank chiefs to review the financial performance of some under-performing sectors in this subdued economy. Other than that the agenda also included to review the first half economic numbers, deteriorating assets and how to plan for healthy credit growth. The other attendees of this meeting were SBI Chairman, Pratip Chaudhuri, Punjab National Bank CMD, K.R. Kamath, and Indian Bank Association CEO, K. Ramakrishnan.

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Private sector banks will be forced to cut lending rates: FM

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said private sector banks will be forced to cut lending rates sooner than later due to competition from public sector counterparts.

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