Public sector undertakings in India

A state-owned enterprise in India is called a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) or a Public Sector Enterprise. These companies are owned by the union government of India, or one of the many state or territorial governments, or both. The company needs to be majority-owned by the government to be a PSU. PSUs may be classified as Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), public sector banks (PSBs) or State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs).

CPSEs are companies in which the direct holding of the Central Government or other CPSEs is 51% or more. They are administered by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

When India achieved independence in 1947, India was primarily an agricultural country with a weak industrial base. The national consensus was in favour of rapid industrialisation of the economy which was seen as the key to economic development, improving living standards and economic sovereignty. Building upon the Bombay Plan, which noted the requirement of government intervention and regulation, the first Industrial Policy Resolution announced in 1948 laid down broad contours of the strategy of industrial development. Subsequently, the Planning Commission was constituted in March 1950 and the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act was enacted in 1951 with the objective of empowering the government to take necessary steps to regulate industrial development. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promoted an economic policy based on import substitution industrialisation and advocated a mixed economy. He believed that the establishment of basic and heavy industry was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy. India's second five year plan (1956–60) and the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 emphasised the development of public sector enterprises to meet Nehru's national industrialisation policy. Indian statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis was instrumental to its formulation, which was subsequently termed the Feldman–Mahalanobis model.

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