Need to give equal chance to private sector to grow: Modi

PM says govt must honour enthusiasm of the private sector, and give it equal opportunity in the new self-reliant India campaign

NEW DELHI: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioned whether IAS officers should run fertilizer factories or airlines, he told a meeting of the governing council of the Niti Aayog that the government has to “honour the enthusiasm of the private sector”. He said in the goal of self-reliance, every person and institution gets the opportunity to grow. His comments on the private sector came against a backdrop of the government’s ambitious target for strategic sale of several public sector units this year, including Air India, oil major BPCL and some banks.

In the virtual meeting, attended by chief ministers and senior officials, Modi said the Union budget presented on February 1 evoked a “positive response” and added, “We are also seeing how the private sector of the country is coming forward with more enthusiasm in this development journey of the country. As a government, we also have to honour this enthusiasm, the energy of the private sector, and give it as much opportunity in the self-reliant India campaign.”

The PM’S comments came days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the government of working on a “Hum do, Hamare do” policy that benefits a handful of industrialists but not the people of India. Gandhi had accused Modi of promoting crony capitalism.

Modi’s speech on Saturday was aimed at refuting these charges as he said, “Self-reliant India is a step towards a new India where every person, every institution, every enterprise gets an opportunity to grow beyond its full capabilities.”

In the Union budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman set

a disinvestment target of ₹1.75 lakh crore for FY21-22. In her budget speech, Sitharaman said, “We have kept working towards strategic disinvestment. A number of transactions namely BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, among others, would be completed in 2021-22.”

“Other than IDBI Bank, we propose to take up the privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company in the year 2021-22,” Sitharaman said.