Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of 25 major central public sector undertakings on Tuesday in a bid to give a thrust to investment in the infrastructure sector in the XII Plan.
Following up on the initiative by Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel, Dr. Singh will be having a direct interaction with the chiefs of companies which enjoy the status of Maharatna and Navratnas, which have been seeking greater financial and administrative autonomy for scaling up further their investment and turnover.
The Prime Minister is expected to draw the blueprint for their role in increasing their capacities and help revive a higher growth rate and increase employment opportunities. The disinvestment calendar of some of these companies will be the focus besides relaxing the terms of the MoUs of these companies to their annual targets.
Dr. Singh will, however, be focusing on the functioning of all the 248 CPSEs which together pumped in a huge Rs.6.66 lakh crore during 2010-11, 15 percent more than in the previous year. Their turnover registered an 18 per cent rise to Rs.14.7 lakh crore.
The importance of these companies could also be gauged from the fact that the 45 listed companies together have a market capitalisation of Rs.15.6 lakh crore which accounts for 22 per cent of the market capitalisation of the BSE as on March 31, 2011.
The CPSEs contributed Rs.1.56 lakh crore to the exchequer in the form of duties, taxes and interest, and dividend, besides earning Rs.97,000 crore by way of foreign exchange in 2010-11.
