Saturday, April 14, 2012

President calls for more public-private partnership, priority to research in PSEs


The President, Ms Pratibha Devisingh Patil, said on April 13 that the private and public need to work together more for the high demand from infrastructure investment.
This is while higher priority must also be given to research and innovation in public sector enterprises (PSEs) through in-house R&D facilities, apart from sponsored research with universities and industry, particularly when foreign collaboration is involved.
“The test is to be nationally creative, globally competitive and efficient, ensure on-time deliverability and provide employment,” Ms Patil said while presenting awards to top PSEs in the country for their operational excellence in 2010-11. The presentation took place during the Public Sector Day Celebrations organised jointly by Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE).
“There should be a constant process of review and assessment, to ensure that best practices of corporate governance for production and management are followed, and innovative business practices are adopted. Public Sectors must make these elements an essential part of the functioning,” she added.
Also present in the occasion were the Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Mr Praful Patel and the Secretary of DPE, Mr O.P. Rawat.
Mr Patel said that investments by the 248 Central PSEs touched an all time high of more than Rs 6.66 lakh crore, which was 15 per cent more than the previous year. Turnover was more than Rs 14.73 lakh crore, which was over 18 per cent. He called upon the PSEs to increasingly compete internationally and said that the Ministry will help solve all the issues they face in doing so.
The SCOPE Gold trophy went to ONGC for Environmental Excellence, Steel Authority of India for Corporate Governance, NTPC and THDC for Corporate Social Responsibility, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Electricals for R&D, Technology Development, Bharat Heavy Electricals for Best practices in Human Resource Management. Meanwhile, Power Finance Corp got the award for best managed bank and financial institution and National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corp for best managed PSE setup.