Question

State with reasons whether you agree not.

Government of India did not take any measures to privatise the economy.

Answer 1

No, the Indian government has taken many measures to privatise the economy. The following are some of these measures:
a. Disinvestment- Disinvestment refers to selling off only part of equity or share by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU's) to the private investors For disinvestment, the government adopted two methods: sale of a part of the equity of PSUs and strategic sale of a number of companies, such as Modern Foods India, Bharat Alluminium Company (BALCO) and Maruti Udyog Ltd.
b. Navratna Policy- Selected PSUs were given Navaratna status and were provided full financial and managerial freedom to perform better and become global giants.
c. Creation of NRB- The National Renewal Board (NRB) was set up to tackle the problem of unemployment created by the closure of sick public sector units.
d. Establishment of BIFR (Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction): This was set up take important decisions with regard to the sick PSUs. If, according the analysis of the board there is no possibility of revival of a sick unit, then it is allowed to privatise.
e. Dereservation- As a part of privatization, the number of industries that were exclusively reserved for the public sector were drastically reduced. At present there are only three industries that are under the exclusive purview of the public sector.