FILE PHOTO: India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attends a joint news conference with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in New Delhi, India, November 1, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
India has been trying to divest parts of state-run companies in sectors ranging from aviation to power to fill its coffers, but it has confronted weak investor sentiment and limited demand. The government’s revenues have been hit hard as a nationwide lockdown imposed in March to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus has ground the economy, Asia’s third largest, to a halt.
“ will help to absorb the expected plunge in their revenue receipts, and avoid a severe cutback in capital expenditure,” said Jayanta Roy, group head of corporate sector rating at ICRA.The minister also said no fresh insolvency cases would be initiated for up to a year, in a move to avoid a wave of bankruptcies from companies hit by the coronavirus outbreak.
Privatisation and nationalisation? Hard to say which one is better.