Question 15 Marks
Give the meaning of privatization and explain its process in India.
Answer
View full question & answer→- Introduction: India adopts the mixed system to develop the nation.
- After $1991$ policy, they didn't rise significantly.
- On March $1951$ there were $5$ public sector enterprises under central government, which became $233$ in $1990$ and $217$ in $2010$ and were around $300 $ in the year $2015.$
- The process of disinvestment from old enterprises continues while the state may also set up new enterprises.
- Now only the areas like atomic energy, certain minerals related to atomic energy and railways are reserved for investment by public sector.
- After independence there was a significant rise in the number of public sector enterprises under the Central Government.
- Besides owning public enterprises, the state also held some control over certain areas of investment.
- Certain areas of strategic importance and public utility services were not open for investment by the private sector till $1991.$ After privatization in $1991,$ most of these areas were declared open for investment by the private sector. Following sectors are opened for investment for private sector.
- E.g. Banking. Education, Communication, Transportation are now open for private sector and foreign investment.
- Entry of Private Sector in controlled area of State :
- If government sell some portion of shares of the state in public enterprises to the private sector. E.g.
- If $29\%$ or $49\%$ shares are transferred to private sector then it is called partial disinvestment.
- If less than $51\%$ share are transferred to private sector then it is called minor disinvestment and if more than $51 \%$ shares are transferred to private sector then it is called major disinvestment.
- Partial, Minor and Major Disinvestment:
- If government sell all the shares of the state in a public enterprise sector to private sector is called complete disinvestment.
- Complete Disinvestment :
- Disinvestment means a process where the state reduces its share of investment in a public enterprise or pull back its investment completely by selling its share to the private sector.
- In other words, if government sells some shares of public sector to private sector but keeps its management under its control is called disinvestment, In short, the process by which the state ' disinvests' from public enterprises is called disinvestment
- Through Disinvestment :
- Privatization can be done by following three ways :
- Through disinvestment-
- By reducing the number of areas reserved for investment.
- Only by the public sector and opening them for investment by the private sector.
- By establishing the public private partnership.
- Process of Privatization :
- Entry of private sector into the public sector units.
- De-nationalization of industries, by selling the shares of public sector units to the private sector.
- The entry of private sector in the reserve list of public sector.
- The public sector units are given on rental basis to private sector.
- The administrative responsibility is given to the private sector.
- Reduce the beginning of new industrial units by the government sector.
- The contract is given to the private sector to produce specific commodities than that of private sector.
- Privatization means the process of transferring ownership of economic enterprises from public sector to private sector either partially or fully.
- In other words, process of introducing private ownership in publicly owned enterprises and increasing the size of private sector.
- Generally, the transfer of public sector unit to private sector is called privatization. Such privatization takes place in the field of industries or services.
- The term 'privatization' has a wide range of ideas.
- Let understand the meaning of the term 'privatization'.
- It can be explained in narrow sense as well as broad sense.
- In a narrow sense, privatization means the induction of private ownership in publicly owned enterprises while in a broad sense, it implies besides private ownership, the induction of private management and control in the public sector enterprises.
- Privatization covers three set of measures.
- Ownership measures.
- Organizational measures.
- Operational measures.
- According to Dr. D.R. Pandse, the definition of privatization can be explained in a following way: Irk
- Meaning of Privatization :
- Increase the efficiency and profitability of the public sector.
- To remove the burden of the debt created by the public-sector
- To get necessary financial instruments for the economy.
- Objective of the Privatization :
- Public units became inefficient because of no competition.
- Public units were running in loss and therefore the concept of privatization was adopted in new economic policy of $1991.$
- The process of accepting the market and private sector led economic decisions is known as Privatization.
- The implementation of privatization took place step by step.
- The laws were removed for producers and investors, and then the foreign investments were invited.