The public sector plays a key role in the economic development of India. It accounts for about 14 per cent of the country’s GDP and employs over 20 million people. The public sector undertakes a variety of activities that include infrastructure development, employment generation, and the promotion of exports, apart from other activities.The public sector has always been an important part of the Indian economy. However, its performance over the years has not been up to the mark. The system and framework of the Indian economy is quite different as compared with others. India is a country with mixed economy, both public sector and private sector plays a huge role in the overall economic growth of the country.The Indian public sector has been facing several challenges in recent years. These challenges have adversely affected the performance and efficiency of the public sector. To overcome these challenges, the public sector needs to undertake many reforms. These reforms will help the public sector regain its lost glory and become an engine of growth for the country once again.The public sector has proved and transformed itself into an emerging and less affected sector during the credit crisis phase. Compared to the last year, the market capitalisation of the PSUs has doubled drastically and also signified the disinvestment process.Technology leaders in India’s PSUs often deploy best practices to maximise benefits from digital public infrastructure and enhance productivity of employees. The goal of a well-designed digital infrastructure should be to have the right amount of observability and automation to make it more efficient, in-turn enabling the organisations to enhance citizen experience of their services.According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the government will be revising its divestment target to Rs 510 billion by selling stakes in various state-run companies. In the last budget, the government intended to raise Rs 650 billion through divestments, which was later revised to Rs 500 billion.At present, the government is trying to work on the privatisation deal of number of central public sector enterprises, such as IDBI Bank, Shipping Corporation of India, NMDC Steel, BEML, HLL Lifecare, Container Corporation of India and Vizag Steel. All the disinvestment processes for these companies have already started and are at different levels, and are expected to be completed in the next fiscal.The government has missed its budgeted disinvestment target for the last four years. In the current fiscal, out of the budgeted amount of Rs 650 billion, 48 per cent making it over Rs 311 billion was collected as of 18 January, 2023.During FY15 to FY23, an amount of about Rs 4.07 trillion has been realised as proceeds from disinvestment through 154 transactions using various modes or instruments. Of this, Rs 3.02 trillion was realised from minority stake sale and Rs 694 billion was realised from strategic disinvestment transactions of 10 PSUs including, HPCL, REC, DCIL, HSCC, NPCC, NEEPCO, THDC, Kamrajar Port, Air India and NINL.A fundamental principle behind the government's policy in the post 2014 period has been the engagement with the private sector as a partner in the development process. The government's disinvestment policy has been revived in the last eight years with stake sales and the successful listing of PSEs on the stock market.The pandemic-induced uncertainty, the geopolitical conflict, and the associated risks have posed challenges before the plans and prospects of the government's disinvestment transactions over the last three years.Nevertheless, the government has reaffirmed its commitment towards privatisation and strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises by implementing the new Public Sector Enterprise (PSE) Policy and Asset Monetisation Strategy. Determined efforts need to be taken to make the public sector asset monetisation scheme successful in realising wide-ranging efficiency gains.If asset monetisation revenues are used to reduce public sector debt, the sovereign credit rating will improve, leading to a lower cost of capital. That will be the biggest fiscal stimulus to the economy.PSUs work to expand the country’s infrastructure and economy. Due to this, the unemployed youth of the country get employment opportunities. There are 12 Maharatna, 12 Navratna, and 78 Miniratna companies with over 98 PSUs in India monitored by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.Maharatna Companies 2023:1. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)2. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)3. Coal India Limited (CIL)4. Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL)5. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL)6. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)7. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)8. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)9. Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFCL)10. Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID)11. Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC)12. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)Navratna Companies 2023:1. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)2. Container Corporation of India Limited3. Engineers India Limited (EIL)4. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)5. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)6. National Aluminium Company (NALCO)7. National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC)8. NLC India Limited (NLCIL)9. National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC)10. Oil India Limited (OIL)11. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL)12. Shipping Corporation of India (SCI)The introduction of new Industrial Policy in India has given an immerse growth to the economy of India. The growth of the PSUs has done pretty well in domestic as well as globally. There has been a growth in PSUs as well. For the increase in their standards and improve the confidence of the investors it is necessary for them to accept the corporate governance norms and standards which will make sure their further growth in a proper and transparent manner.Infrastructure Today made an attempt to deeply analyse the power of productivity of some of the top PSUs across the country. Here’s how the PSU giants responded, of course with a great elan.