Visiting Senior Fellow, Shankkar Aiyar, discusses the government's efforts at managing public wealth, in this Bloomberg Quint article. 

"This year the government of India would have collected Rs 92,475.73 crore – a record since the beginning of the ‘disinvestment’ programme in 1992. Of this Rs 36,915 crore would come from the sale of public sector retailer Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. to public sector explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. ...

Clearly, expediency matters when faced with debt and deficit. A recent addition in the lexicon of disinvestment is ‘buyback’. Governments have extracted buyback benefits from public sector companies like NHPC Ltd., National Aluminium Company Ltd., NMDC Ltd., NTPC Ltd., Coal India Ltd., NLC India Ltd., MOIL Ltd. and even unlisted entities such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Bharat Dynamics...

Exchange Traded Funds are another way the government raised monies – virtually a proxy for a yearly annuity with no disruption in ownership or control. Since appetite for CPSEs is low, props are used to ensure subscription. Take recently launched Bharat 22. Nearly a third of the holding is slices of the SUUTI-held equity of Larsen and Toubro Ltd. and ITC..."

Read the full article here.