Classify PSUs as strategic instead of sectors: NITI

NITI Aayog has suggested classifying individual public sector companies as strategic or nonstrategic under the proposed public sector policy instead of identifying sectors, a senior official with the think tank said.

"If you increase the number of strategic sectors, the new policy will end up protecting more PSUs," the official told Informist. "It might not have the intended results."

The government had in May proposed a new public sector policy under which sectors will be classified as strategic and non-strategic. Under the policy, the government proposed to privatise all public sector companies in non-strategic sectors and reduce the number of stateowned companies in strategic sector to a maximum of four.

"We are saying that rather than pick and choose sectors as strategic and non-strategic, we should be free to choose PSUs for disinvestment across sectors," the official said.