Public Sector

Finance Firm Buying Public Sector Central Electronics Ltd. for Cheap Has Links to BJP Leaders https://thewire.in/political-economy/central-electronics-bjp-cel-sharda-nandal 
Nandal Finance and Leasing, the bidder at the centre of the storm, is owned by the promoters of Sharda University, who have had business dealings with the family of a BJP treasurer in Uttar Pradesh. 

Intrigued by these patterns – alleged under-valuation, employees challenging the disinvestment in court, an unknown firm picking up a national asset, both bidding groups having links – The Wire took a closer look at CEL’s divestment trajectory.

We found two things. One, CEL is indeed being undervalued. And two, the promoters of the winning firm, Nandal, also have business dealings with a senior BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh. 

the firm is the sole supplier of “phase control modules” for the Akash missile system and weapon-locating radars. In 2019, India was importing one of these components at Rs 50-70 lakhs apiece.

https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/lic-ipo-gross-injustice-to-the-smaller-lic-policy-holders-especially-those-belonging-to-the-scs-sts-obcs/

It is a letter from E A S Sarma, Former Secretary t Govt of India to Union Finance Miniser

06/03/2022

I feel distressed at the Ministry doing an accounting jugglery to transfer the bulk of the policyholders’ funds to the shareholders’ account by splitting the consolidated Life Fund, to benefit the stock market investors, at the cost of the policyholders, whereas in all fairness, it is the policy holders who ought to own the Corporation predominantly, as the government’s contribution to its growth has been marginal. It is ironic that policyholders’ window has been restricted to a mere 10% of the equity to be disinvested, whereas the rest of the 90% has been thrown open to the stock market investors, out of whom 20% has been opened up for foreign investors.

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How to kill LIC -story behind IPO | The Money Trail  CFA India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4hxuh7CEUM  Feb 20, 2022
If a PSU is in loss, sell it. If it is in profit, still sell. Union government is inventing reasons to sell the national assets. Also the unbelievable and biggest ever loan fraud case in India in this episode of The Money Trail.

The political economy of CPSE disinvestment: Has national wealth been put on a distress sale?
in India  https://countercurrents.org/2022/02/the-political-economy-of-cpse-disinvestment-has-national-wealth-been-put-on-a-distress-sale/  — by E A S Sarma — 16/02/2022

The few oligarchs who fund the political parties and issue diktats on policy are waiting with their war chests of funds ready to buy the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) for a song, along with their enormous wealth. The whole exercise is to be completed in a couple of years and those CPSE heads who fail to cooperate will be summarily removed, with the bureaucrats of the concerned Ministries taking over the CPSEs.

Out of the 256 CPSUs, which were operating in 2019-20, 171 earned Rs 1.38 lakh Crores of profits. They contributed Rs 3.76 lakh Crores of tax revenue to the Central public exchequer. They paid Rs 72,136 Crores as dividends to the Centre.

Over the years, the political parties’ appetite for funds increased in leaps and bounds, forcing them to explore new avenues. In 2009, they came up with the innovative idea of an “Electoral Trust” as the new vehicle to channel company donations on a much large scale,without attracting tax liability.

the NDA government went a step further by removing the existing cap on donations and introducing an opaque system of “Electoral Bonds” as the new vehicle to channel company donations on a much larger scale, without the public knowing where they were coming from (https://thewire.in/politics/fcra-reviving-lapsed-law-amending-retrospectively-trumps-ethical-legal-barriers).