Govt may consider corporatising state-run firms, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government can look at corporatising state-run firms as an alternative to improve their viability as divesting them or closure were not the only available options. “In our country reformists would say that you do disinvestment. If we do, then they would say this government has done ‘very good’. If strike happens then there will be a photo on front page saying ‘Modi murdabad, Modi murdabad’. We have made shipping companies, which were running in losses, profitable. “Do we have only two ways to improve thing — either disinvest them or shut them down? But there is a third way which is to corporatise them and change work culture. Bring efficiency and make it apolitical and we can change things,” he said while speaking at a conference here.