Unlocking public assets

Govt's plan to monetise assets has rewards and risks

Ensuring a sufficient flow of funds to the infrastructure sector has been a problem in India. The government itself rarely has enough revenues to match its ambitions on infrastructure investment; the private sector is hesitant about project finance in a domain that is so exposed to political risk; and public-private partnerships have acquired a bad name in the past decade after slowdowns, cost and time overruns, and accusations of corruption. It is understandable, therefore, that the government has now switched to a different approach: Monetising public assets. What the government means by this is that a public sector entity will