Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) have sometimes been considered ‘white elephants’, with a reputation for operating inefficient firms and thereby being a drain on the national exchequer. Further, popular discourse asserts that the dynamic private sector environment in the India of today no longer requires CPSEs. Consequently, there is considerable pressure on the government to divest CPSEs.
This report establishes that CPSEs are indeed required in select sectors and under specific circumstances and lays out a CPSE Filter Framework to determine the need for government participation in a sector.
It was released at the PSE Summit on 18 November 2019 in New Delhi.