Madam, I think it
is a correct decision that the proceeds of disinvestment should not be spent to
meet the revenue gap. Therefore, National Investment Fund was created. From
that corpus, 75 per cent of amount will be spent on social sectors. Three
important areas of social sectors were identified. One important social sector
is education, another is health and the third one is infrastructure. Since the
inception of National Investment Fund, more than Rs.1000 crore of corpus has
been created. But if you look at the budgetary allocation and actual spending,
you will find that investment is much more than what could be available from
the National Investment Fund. It is true that in the last three years, deposit
in National Investment Fund was not made because we sought special
dispensation. Huge amount of money had to be invested140 through stimulus packages to ensure that
further deceleration of GDP is prevented. Keeping that in view, special
dispensations were given160 by
the Cabinet in last three years. We used them for making our developmental
expenditure. I assure the hon. Member that we would not like to seek further
extension though we are in a very difficult situation and all of you are fully
aware of it. In respect of the disinvestment of the Defence production units,
there is no such proposal right now. Only two units have come right now which
are already listed but no fresh proposal is under consideration. As and when
the proposals are considered, they will be in the domain of public knowledge. For
the petroleum sector, there have been some proposals which are under
consideration.
Hon. Chairperson, in regard to the
moot point of280 the hon.
Member, I would like to submit that when we go to the market, we shall have to
keep in view the market condition. We cannot sell our valuable assets at a
condition where we will not get the adequate prices. 320 The whole objective is to discover the
latent price which is not known. It is because if you are holding 100 per cent,
you do not know what would be its value. In that case, you go by the technical
method. With the closing of the cash balance, you divide the prevailing value
with the number of shareholders and arrive at a notional value of the share.
But when it is traded in the market, then the real value is discovered. I am
fully aware of the current volatile situation in the market, and surely not
only me, 420 but any prudent
Finance Minister would not like to dispose of valuable assets. If the House
agrees, I would like to share the present international scenario and how it is
going to affect the Indian economy and world economy and I would like to have
the benefit from the inputs of the hon. Members who can help us. Of course, it480 would depend on the hon. Speaker. We can
have a discussion on the current international situation including the
volatility in the market.
Madam, Speaker, the statement given
by the Minister outlines the disinvestment policy that seems to be largely
based on whether the public sector enterprise is profitable. But I would like
to ask the hon. Minister whether there is a broader vision as to which economic
activities are appropriate for the Government to be involved in the public
sector. 560 For example, why
is the Government in the business of running hotels? Is that necessary for the
Government? In the current economic global difficulties we face, could we not
imagine a new set of guidelines, covering those activities where the private
sector cannot provide a more efficient service, or those activities which are
of the public and national interest or where the private sector would not be
interested? Could we not have some guidelines as to whether there are640 certain areas where the Government needs
to have the public sector involved, rather than simply be in all the
sectors we have been since decades?
Madam, Speaker there is always a
revision of the guideline. If you look at the present policy, you will realize
that there has been an evolution of the guidelines and the policy thrust in
respect of700 the
disinvestment. The hon. President in his Address clearly spelt out the broad
outline. I have also indicated it here. In the Question Hour, we do not discuss
the policy matters and only the facts are discussed. But since the question was
put in respect of the policy, the first couple of paragraphs have dealt with
the policy and salient features of the policy are given there. We have clearly
spelt out that the Government holdings will under no circumstances come below
51 per cent. Things like at what level it will be decided and at what
percentage it800 will be
decided, are being worked out in consultation with the administrative
Ministries and various stakeholders. There is a Group of Ministers under my
Chairmanship which consults various stakeholders and concerned authorities. All
these processes are carried out before arriving at840 a decision.
Sir, nowadays, the safety match
industry is facing a very serious problem not only in Tamil Nadu but all over
India. The safety match industry is segregated into three parts, namely,
completely handmade, partially mechanized and fully mechanized. Safety match
making can be classified into five steps, namely, frame filling, dipping, box
filling, label pasting and packing. In completely handmade units, all these
five processes are being carried out without the use of power. But in partially
mechanized units, the processes of frame filling and dipping are being carried
out through machines while box filling, label pasting and packing are being
performed by hand. In fully mechanized units, all the five processes are being
carried out through machines. 960
The current situation is that the completely handmade units have shrunk into
three per cent while the partially mechanized units980 are contributing 72 per cent of the
total production and 25 per cent comes from completely mechanized units. As a
result, all the labourers, who are engaged in handmade units, have shifted to
semi-mechanized units. After the implementation of the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme, this industry is facing labour crunch. However,
they did not achieve their production target and the imposition of excise duty
is adding fuel to the fire. As per the available survey report, partially
mechanized units have contributed 79 per cent employment in safety match
industry. Handmade safety match industry employs least number of labourers.
Semi-mechanized units employ most of the labourers, taking over the position of
small-scale industry from handmade units.
I shall, therefore, urge upon the Union Government that total excise
duty exemption should be extended to semi-mechanized units at par with handmade
units1120 to save this
industry.
Today in the context of the 21st
century, we need to make our institutions more competitive. We need to amend
the governance structure of these institutions, both Government and private. We
need to get representation of experts from outside the system instead of these
institutions being controlled by officials of the Government of India or of the
State Governments. We must get representation of industry, the scientific
experts and the alumni into the Board of Governors, which we have not done. Who
is really interested in the institution? It is the student who has passed out
of the institution who remembers it in the course of his life and has deep
affection for the institution and, therefore, would like to invest in it and
would like to show that the institution achieves greater heights. As this1260 House considers some of these issues,
there should be a general consensus because education represents the future of
India. 1280 Our young people,
no matter where they are and to which community they belong, are entitled to
quality education. But they do not have appropriate governance structures to be
able to compete with the rest of the world and create knowledge which alone is
the wealth of any nation. The wealth of a nation is not the infrastructure of
an institution; the wealth of a nation is not the amount of fees that the
institution charges; the wealth of a nation is also not the representation of
people of so-called high eminence on the Board of Governors. The wealth of a
nation is the creativity of the student community. The creativity of the
student community will only come about if you1400
allow the student community the freedom to think and give it the necessary
infrastructure so that they can actually realise the dreams that they have for
themselves, for their families and for their country.
Sir, this Bill demonstrates the1440 importance of research and development in
our country. As I mentioned earlier, we must also care for the quality of
education at the lower levels as they are the feeding channels for the higher
education and research and development, without which our ability at the higher
levels will be highly limited. In a broader sense, we must change the education
system. Even in higher education institutes and colleges, we are producing
graduates who will just read, remember and reproduce for the sake of
examinations, without really making them understand what they really study. In
a way, we are turning them more into memorizing devices than thinking
individuals who will apply their learning and knowledge in real life. Arguably,
most of our engineers and doctors coming out of our institutions today, are
understanding as little as 10 per cent of what they study. You can imagine what
to expect from someone with 90 per cent gap in their understanding of what1600 they are educated in.
