Disinvestment in India
Trends, Problems and Prospects
by
Rev. Fr. Dr. J. Felix Raj, SJ
The book, Disinvestment in India: Trends, Problems
and Prospects focuses on economic reforms and resulting disinvestment of
public sector enterprises (PSE) in India. The book quite lucidly analyses the
pre and post disinvestment performance of the PSEs in terms of efficiency
analysis and many other indicators of the enterprises with the help of case
studies for two different PSEs chosen on the basis of their pre disinvestment profitability
status, viz, Disinvestment of a profit making PSE – Bharat Aluminum Company
Ltd. (BALCO) & Disinvestment of loss making PSE - Lagan Jute Machinery Co.
Ltd (LJML).
Starting from the
conceptual framework of Development through the Public Sector enterprises from
a historical point of view the book enlightens on to the LPG model implemented
in nineties. Before coming to the Indian scenario of disinvestment in reality,
literatures on disinvestment in context to foreign countries has been discussed
so as to make a comparative analysis in regard to policy taken in domestic and
foreign countries for disinvestment. Implementation
of LPG model being the break point from the India’s economical point of view,
the author has made his discussion into two subsections – Pre Liberalization
growth of PSEs and related development & Post Disinvestment status and
current policies of the Government regarding disinvestment.
However the crunch
of the book lies in the discussion of the two disinvested PSEs as case studies.
This part of the book tries to address the yearlong controversy on the
disinvestment decision of BALCO. As known to all of us that this company was
disinvested while it was running in profit, considering this as a case of
disinvestment of a profit making enterprise, the comparison has been made with
a case of disinvestment of a loss making enterprise. Thereby, the study tries
to identify the various reasons of disinvestment of these two companies from
the view point of analyzing the causes of disinvestment in general. A followed
discussion has also been made to assess the post disinvestment
social-economic-demographic scenario of the disinvestment decision.
The most important
aspect of the book is to take into consideration the effects of disinvestment
of public sector enterprises in the various spheres of the economy, viz.
employment, income, poverty, etc.
Using a
strategic model to measure the Pre & Post operative efficiency of the
disinvested companies and also by using various tabulated analysis, in conclusion the author
prescribed certain policies on
future disinvestment strategy and suggested disinvestment of the loss making but not of profit making
enterprises as
the supreme priority.
Rev.
Fr. Dr. J. Felix Raj, SJ, is the Principal and Former Rector of St. Xavier’s
College (Autonomous), He received Ph.D degree in Economics from Rabindra
Bharati University, Kolkata. He is currently the Vice-President, Bengal
Economic Association (Bangiya Arthaniti Parishad). He represented this
Association in the council meeting of the International Economic Association
(of which Bengal Economic Association is an Associate Member) in 2005 at
Marakech, Morrocco.
Dr. Felix Raj is an well known writer and
has presented papers in many national and international conferences. Fr. Felix Raj has lectured in many
universities in Europe, USA and Canada.
Fr. Felix Raj is an educationist,
associated with a number of NGOs and engaged in many philanthropic activities. Parivartan and Snegam, NGOs engaged in social and educational activities are his
brainchildren. His initiative, “College to Village and Village to College” at
St. Xavier’s College is a novel effort in education.
He is the Director, The Goethals Indian
Library and Research Society and The West Bengal State Advisor to All Indian
Catholic University Federation. He is also the Secretary of the Jesuit Economic
Association.
He is the recipient of (i) Mother Teresa
Millennium Award in 2006, (ii) First CAB Community Development Award 2008,
(iii) Mahdeolal Saraogi Award 2008, (iv) Lifetime Achievement Award by Core
Sector Communique in 2011.
