:: SCOPE : Public Sector in India

	Standing Conference Of Public Enterprises

Prime Minister Urges PSEs to Explore Global Opportunities

The MOU and SCOPE Excellence Award Presentation Ceremony was a moment of pride and privilege for SCOPE, DPE and Public Sector Fraternity as Hon’ble Prime Minister appreciated Public Sector Enterprises for doing well in increasingly competitive and uncertain environment. Recognizing that the robustness and resilience of PSEs helped the country to perform better than most other countries in weathering the global economic crisis, he expressed confidence about the ability of PSEs to face challenges that lie ahead for the country. Dr. Manmohan Singh committing to a strong public sector, announced that the government is working on a policy to support PSEs in their efforts to explore global opportunities.

Hon’ble Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh addressed the Chief Executives of Public Sector Enterprises and presented “SCOPE Awards for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management” and “MOU Awards for Excellence in Performance” for 2008-09.
The Union Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises (HI&PE), Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of State for HI&PE, Mr. Arun Yadav and Secretary, DPE, Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee also addressed the gathering of top management of PSEs while Chairman, BRPSE, Dr. Nitish Sengupta and SCOPE Chairman and CMD, NTPC Mr. Arup Roy Choudhury were on the dais. The ceremony, jointly organized by Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) was attended by over 1000 Chief Executives, Directors and Senior Executives of public enterprises, senior government officials, distinguished guests and media persons.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Manmohan Singh urged the galaxy of top Managers from PSEs to explore global opportunities. “In particular, we need to step up our search for raw material assets”, he said adding that the government is working on a policy to support the PSEs in this effort. Pointing out that his Government is committed to a strong public sector, the Prime Minister said, “We have reasons to be confident about the ability of India’s public sector to face the challenges that lie ahead for our country, both domestically and globally”. He also assured that “Enterprises facing difficulties, such as Air India and BSNL, are receiving the due attention of the government.”

Improve Productivity

The Prime Minister said there is need to improve productivity. To survive in increasingly competitive times, Indian companies must make use of new technology and pay attention to improving corporate governance. He asked the public sector to be in the forefront of such efforts including the quest for innovation, adventure and enterprise. He advised the public sector not to be satisfied with the status quo and to have the ability and the vision and the courage to adapt itself quickly to the winds of change in order to strengthen the economy and the country.
Pointing out that the government is committed to a strong public sector and thus has been attempting to give increasing autonomy and flexibility to the PSEs. Creating a new category of ‘Maharatna’ and giving more powers to take on global competition aggressively is a part of this effort. The four PSEs are IOC, NTPC, ONGC and SAIL. These companies are already significant global players and are likely to play even bigger global role with their enhanced powers.

Highest Standards of Corporate Accountability Needed

“We are also conscious of the need to ensure the highest standards of corporate accountability in our public sector. We are one of the very few countries in the world that have implemented a mandatory Code of Corporate Governance for their public sector enterprises,” said Dr. Singh mentioning that the government has encouraged the CPSEs to adopt a robust and transparent Performance Management System and incentivised and revised salaries along with innovative measures such as Performance Related Pay which is expected to result in sound practices for better corporate governance, which is of critical importance in today’s increasing environment, he said.

Ensure Proper Succession Planning

Dr. Singh asked the public sector to focus on human resource development. “We must ensure proper succession planning in our companies. “We must also ensure that we are able to recruit bright young men and women to public sector jobs and retain them” he said urging the Ministries and the public sector leadership to give serious attention to human resource issues at all levels. The quality of its human resource is critical asset to the success of any organization and it must be ensured that a vibrant private sector does not deprive the PSEs of the best talent.
Congratulating the award winning chief executives and the enterprises, the Prime Minister said that in many ways they were the role models and expected to inspire others to strive and achieve higher goals of human endeavour.

Enhancement of technological edge and productivity
pose biggest challenges for PSEs

In his address, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises said that enhancement of technological edge and productivity pose the biggest challenge for CPSEs as they expand operations in domestic as well as foreign markets. “There is a need for continued adherence to good corporate governance practices as well as increased sensitivity to societal obligations”, he said.
In the face of an increasingly competitive scenario, the CPSEs have emerged stronger, more efficient and capable of becoming global entities, the Minister asserted adding “Our PSEs deserve all praise and encouragement for facilitating India to reach the unique position of having second highest growth rate in the world”. He said empowerment of the Boards of profit making CPSEs and conducive policy framework laid down by the government has facilitated operational freedom to the CPSEs, enabling them to operate on commercial lines and enhanced their performance. They have successfully transformed themselves to become more competitive and are in the forefront of our drive in achieving sustainable, inclusive growth.
Speaking about financial performance of PSEs, Mr. Deshmukh said for the year 2008-09, the turnover of all CPSEs was a staggering over Rs 12 lakh crore, showing a growth of more than 15 percent over the previous year. The CPSEs contributed more than Rs 1,65,000 crore to the National Exchequer during 2008-09 by way of taxes and duties, interest payments and dividends. The net profit of profit making CPSEs stood at Rs 98,652 crore and the net value addition was more than Rs 3 lakh crore, that is more than three times the net profit. Expressing his satisfaction over PSEs’ market capitalization, the Union Minister said that the CPSEs were increasingly showing their mettle on the stock exchanges and the market capitalization of CPSEs as on 31 October 2010 stood at Rs 14,85,000 crore, which was around 22 percent of the total market capitalisation of BSE. “I may mention that this figure does not include Coal India Limited. This performance of CPSEs on the stock exchanges is even more credible as listed CPSEs constitute only about one percent of the total number of companies listed on the BSE”, Mr. Deshmukh added. The Minister complimented SCOPE for doing an excellent job of enabling the PSEs to explore the global market and asked the apex body to continue to do the good work.
Proposing the Vote of Thanks Mr. Arun Yadav, Minister of State of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises said the country continues to be least affected from the global slowdown and the public sector has played a crucial role in ensuring huge leap in growth terms.
Complimenting SCOPE for taking proactive and progressive steps in areas such as training, certification for directors, HR Management etc., in collaboration with DPE for facilitating further development of the public sector, Mr. Yadav said the joint initiatives of SCOPE and DPE will go as very significant steps taken in the direction of enlarging the knowledge base of executives of CPSEs.
Earlier, in his Welcome Address, Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary, DPE said many of the economic achievements including weathering of global economic slowdown could be attributed to the PSEs. The public sector has been the backbone of Indian economy and many PSEs with their strategic vision are marching ahead. However, there are certainly many challenges and concerns faced by PSEs including multiple principals with multiple goals which are often conflicting, operational inefficiencies, rigid HRM procedures, compensation concerns, lack of autonomy and overly centralized organization and structure that need to be addressed. Mr. Chatterjee said the empowerment models of Maharatna, Navratna and Miniratna have proved to be highly productive and the need is felt that it should be further liberalized by enabling the empowered PSEs to take business decision expeditiously. Mr. Chatterjee said that DPE and SCOPE are working in tandem with dynamic synergy to create an enabling environment for the public sector.

Conference of Chief Executives of
Public Sector Enterprises March 8, 2007

CEC – JANUARY 10, 2006

While Public Sector Enterprises have been successfully meeting fierce competition from world renowned MNCs and becoming global players, the government needs to evolve conducive policy framework for their further growth and promote them at the international arena in its economic diplomacy. This was the undertone of the Conference of Chief Executives of Central Public Sector Enterprises organised jointly by Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) and Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) on the theme "CPSEs: Developing Global Competitiveness". The Conference was inaugurated by Hon'ble Vice President of India Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises and Water Resources, Shri Sontosh Mohan Dev and Shri Priyadarshi Thakur, Secretary, Ministry of HI & PE also addressed the Conference. SCOPE Chairman, Shri S. Behuria delivered the Welcome Address while Shri K.D. Tripathi, Joint Secretary, DPE proposed Vote of Thanks. Dr. S.M. Dewan, Director General, SCOPE was also on the dais.

On the occasion, the Hon'ble Vice President presented "SCOPE Awards for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management" and "MOU Excellence Awards". Shri C.P. Jain, CMD, NTPC was conferred SCOPE Award in the Individual Category and Indian Oil Corporation was presented Excellent PSE Award. SAIL was awarded Special Institutional Category Award while HSCC and WAPCOS were jointly conferred SCOPE Award for Excellence in the Smaller Public Enterprise Category. Shri C.P. Jain and Dr. S.M. Dewan were also presented Special Awards for their outstanding contribution to the Public Sector and SCOPE.

MOU Award winning companies were NTPC Ltd, GAIL (India) Ltd, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, PEC Ltd, Power Grid Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Electronics Ltd.

Hon'ble Vice President also released publication on "Corporate Governance in Public Sector Enterprises" edited by Dr. S.M. Dewan, Director General, SCOPE.

Soon after the inaugural function, SCOPE Award winning companies made presentations. The session was chaired by Shri C.P. Jain. Shri D. Datta, CMD, WAPCOS, Shri Ashok Kumar, CMD, HSCC, Shri S.K. Roongta, Director (HR), SAIL and Shri T.L. Jain, ED, IOC made presentations about their organisation's efforts to achieve excellence in performance and productivity.

Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, chaired the Technical Session. Shri M. Damodaran, Chairman, SEBI delivered the Keynote Address while Dr. M.B. Athreya, Management Adviser and Shri K.D. Tripathi, Joint Secretary, DPE also addressed the Session. Dr. S.M. Dewan gave Welcome Address and Shri Raji Philip, Vice Chairman, SCOPE proposed Vote of Thanks in theTechnical Session.

The Conference, attended by over 1000 chief executives, directors and senior executives of PSEs and senior government officials, gave an excellent opportunity for experience sharing and to deliberate ways and means in developing global competitiveness in CPSEs.

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SCOPE in collaboration with Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) jointly organize, from time to time, Conference of Chief Executives of Public Sector Enterprises. These conferences provide opportunity to chief executives of public sector enterprises to hear from the Hon’ble President/Vice-President/Prime Minister the expectations of the government from the public sector and to place before them issues facing the public sector and suggestions for making PSEs result oriented.

CEC – SEPTEMBER 2004

The Conference of Chief Executives of Central Public Sector Enterprises was a moment of pride and privilege for public sector fraternity as Hon’ble Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh invited suggestions from them for enhancing competitiveness of PSEs. Dr. Manmohan Singh, who steered the Nation away from brink of economic disaster by ushering in economic reforms in 1991, committed his government to a strong and effective public sector and announced establishment of a Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises to guide policies with regard to PSEs.

The Conference, inaugurated by the Prime Minister, was jointly organized by Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) and Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) at Vigyan Bhawan on 4th September 2004. Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Sontosh Mohandev and Dr. Adarsh Kishore, Secretary, Ministry of HI&PE also addressed the Conference which deliberated on the theme “Corporate Governance in Public Sector Enterprises”. SCOPE Chairman, Shri C.P. Jain, delivered the welcome address and highlighted the need to streamline and rationalize systems and procedures of governance applicable to PSEs. Shri A.K. Rath, Joint Secretary, DPE proposed vote of thanks. Dr. S.M. Dewan, Director General, SCOPE was also on the dais.

Hon’ble Prime Minister also presented the “SCOPE Awards for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management for the year 2002-03” and “MOU Awards for Excellence in Performance”.

The inaugural session was followed by presentations by SCOPE Award winning companies. It was chaired by Shri Subir Raha, Chairman & Managing Director, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation. Shri Proshanto Banerjee, Chairman & Managing Director, GAIL (India) Ltd; Shri S.C. Saxena, Director (Projects) RITES and Shri A.K.Bhattacharyya, Chairman & Managing Director, Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corpn of India (ALIMCO) made presentations about their organizations’ efforts to achieve excellence in performance.

Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, chaired the Technical Session on “Corporate Governance in PSEs”. The post lunch session was also addressed by Dr Adarsh Kishore, Secretary, HI&PE while Prof. Y.R.K. Reddy of Yaga Consultancy Limited made a presentation on the theme of the conference. An overview of corporate governance in PSEs was presented by Shri A.K. Rath, Joint Secretary , DPE, while Dr. S.M. Dewan, Director General, SCOPE delivered the welcome address. Shri C.P. Jain, Chairman, SCOPE while proposing vote of thanks also gave concluding remarks in the session.

The Conference, attended by over 1000 chief executives, directors and senior executives of PSEs and senior government officials, gave excellent opportunity to deliberate on issues concerning corporate governance and suggestions for making PSEs result oriented in this growing globalized business environment.

The Prime Minister on his part has said that his government was in favour of devolving full managerial and commercial autonomy to successful, profit making companies operating in competitive environment, thus throwing the ball in the court of PSEs to grab the opportunity by performing.

CEC - APRIL 2003

For cherishing Vision 2020 for India to become a developed nation the public sector with its vast resources has a major role to play. And what else could have been a glorious moment than the President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a visionary and scientist of great stature, himself steering the public sector to this path by addressing the Conference of Chief Executives of Public Sector Enterprises on the theme “Technology for competitiveness”, on Saturday, the 5th April 2003 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The Conference, organized jointly by Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) and Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), was also addressed by the Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Shri Balasaheb Vikhe Patil. Secretary, HI&PE, Shri Naresh Narad delivered the welcome address. SCOPE Chairman Shri C.P. Jain, while proposing vote of thanks also highlighted contribution of public enterprises and put across the issues pertaining to the public sector. Over 1000 participants including chief executives, directors, senior executives of PSEs and a large number of senior government officials attended it.

Hon’ble President presented the “SCOPE Awards for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management for the years 2000-01 and 2001-02. At the same time, Shri Patil gave away MOU Awards for Excellence in Performance 2001-02 along with a call that those PSEs that did not get the awards this year should strive to get in the next year.

The inaugural session was followed by a technical session on “Technology Driven PSE Management” which was chaired by Shri K.C. Pant, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. He delivered the opening remarks and made concluding observations in the Session. Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India delivered the keynote address on “Management and Leadership of Technology Driven Public Sector Enterprises”. SCOPE Chairman, Shri C.P. Jain and Vice Chairman Shri Raji Philip who spoke on PSE issues also addressed the session. The welcome address was delivered by Shri A.K. Rath, Joint Secretay, DPE who also gave an overview of the performance of PSEs. SCOPE Director General, Dr. S.M. Dewan proposed the vote of thanks. Shri B.K.Panda, Director (Operations), RINL and Shri V.H. Ron, CMD, ECIL made presentations on turning around their organizations while Shri N.R. Mohanty, Chairman, HAL mentioned about the stunning technological feat achieved by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to get international recognition. The Technical Session was attended by about 300 chief executives and directors of PSEs as well as senior government officials.

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CEC - MAY 2002

It was a moment of great pride for public sector enterprises, Standing Conference of Public Enterprises and Department of Public Enterprises when Hon’ble Vice President Shri Krishan Kant inaugurated the Conference of Chief Executives of Public Sector Enterprises on Saturday, the 4th May 2002 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The then Union Minister for heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Manohar Joshi, Minister of State (HI&PE), Dr Vallabhbhai Kathiria, Secretary, Ministry of HI&PE, Shri B.N. Jha, and Chairman SCOPE Shri D.K. Varma also addressed the Conference which was jointly organized by SCOPE and DPE.

On the occasion, Hon’ble Vice President also presented the “SCOPE Awards for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management for the years 1998-99 and 1999-2000” and “MOU Awards for Excellence in Performance 1999-2000 and 2000-2001” and released the Charter of SCOPE Centre for Excellence in Corporate Governance.

The inaugural session was followed by three technical sessions and a valedictory session. The first session deliberated on the issue of “Corporate Governance and Empowerment of Public Enterprises Boards” while the second session discussed “Restructuring, Disinvestment and Privatization of Public Enterprises: Issues and Strategies”. In the third session participants interacted on “Counseling, Retraining and Redeployment of Rationalized Employees of CPSEs”. Thus the Conference which was attended by about 300 chief executives and senior executives of public enterprises and senior government officials, provided an excellent opportunity to discuss issues not only relevant to PSEs but also critical in current transitional phase of globalized business environment, onset of second phase of economic reforms and right sizing of manpower.

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CEC - 1ST APRIL 2000

The beginning of the first financial year of the new millennium saw the Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurating the Conference of Chief Executives of Public Sector Enterprises on Saturday, the 1st April 2000 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public enterprises Mr Manohar Joshi, Minister of State (HI&PE) Dr Vallabhbhai Kathiria, Mr Prabhat Kumar, Cabinet Secretary, Mr. T.S. Vijayaraghavan, Secretary (HI&PE), Dr Uddesh Kohli, Chairman, SCOPE were also present on the occasion. The Conference, jointly organized by Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) and Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) was attended by about 350 chief executives and other senior executives of public enterprises and senior government officials. On this occasion, the Prime Minister also presented the “SCOPE Award for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public sector Management for the years 1996-97 and 1997-98” besides giving away the DPE’s “MOU Awards for Excellence in Performance during the year 1998-99”.

The Conference provided an opportunity to the chief executives to hear from the Prime Minister, the expectations of the government from the public sector. It also provides an opportunity to place before the Prime Minister issues facing the public sector and suggestions for making these enterprises result oriented in order to enhance return on investment.

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