With the high pace of development of India, accelerated tasks along with the best results is required. The Indian government seems to be in favor of privatization for getting better results in less time. Many sectors have seen results up to the mark and some sectors are on the verge of opening doors for private companies
In a new step taken by the government, private companies will be given 40% of the forests for maintenance. Last month environment ministry issued guidelines for states and found that it don’t have enough resources to maintain forest and that’s why it decided to take private firms into the matter and to lease out degraded forests to companies who would maintain them and will ensure afforestation and timber extraction. These forests have been under a government form over a century long period, but the outcomes are not up to the mark. Environment ministry will make new rules for private participation in forest land management. According to the records, India has 69 million hectares of forest cover out of which nearly 40% is segmented as open forest or shrubs which is called degraded forest, having less than 40% canopy cover. But it also met with some counter points. The guidelines prohibit the companies from planting the same species of trees in only 10-15% of the area which is for developing local communities. And as per the stats, the most degraded lands have 50-100 species in a hectare. The companies will plant one or two species taking their end products in mind. The final decision will come after common agreement.
Not only this, private role is under questions for the development and improvement of efficiency of airports. After analyzing the current situation, it is expected that in 2025 the number of passengers will be three times, marking the count to nearly 570 million passengers. As the air traffic is increasing, about $40-50 billion is required for expanding the airport infrastructure to meet future requirements. The proposal of this public private partnership for development and improving efficacy at Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports and operation and maintenance contracts to private companies in Jaipur and Ahmedabad airport is under questions. The objections are aligned with the fact that privatization has raised the user charges in Delhi (nearly 350%) and Mumbai airport (nearly 150%) making it a taught deal for a common man.
These days defense seems to be the fresh market for private players. Make in India has imposed best impact over defense ministry. Many private companies have flooded into defense sectors and defense ministry is also very glad for this. To get the best results, defense ministry has set up a task force to select private companies for mega projects. The task force will be headed by former DRDO Chief VK Aatre. The key projects given to the private companies will be aircraft manufacturing, warship construction and complex weapon systems. The projects are classified under six categories and suitable company will be awarded the contract for it.
Private partnership will surely give better results, but is expected to make some extra burden on people’s pockets. Well privatization has a bright future and is expected to give good results.
