BJP MP Anurag Thakur, former Union Minister and Lok Sabha member from Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, on Friday, 29 May 2026, credited the Modi government and the workforce of India's public sector undertakings for transforming PSUs into what he called 'the engine of the Indian economy' over the past 12 years.

Context

Posting from New Delhi, Thakur wrote that 'it took almost 12 years for the Modi government supported by the dedicated workforce of the PSUs to make PSUs as the engine of Indian economy.' The statement marks a political stocktaking of the Narendra Modi government's record on public sector reform since it first assumed office in May 2014.

The claim comes as the government approaches the completion of a full decade-plus in office, a period during which central public sector enterprises have been repositioned from perceived liabilities to contributors to national capital expenditure and fiscal consolidation.

Policy Backdrop

The Modi government began restructuring the PSU landscape from its first budget in 2014-15, raising the disinvestment target to Rs 58,425 crore and introducing the concept of strategic sales in select undertakings. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, enacted in 2016, enabled faster resolution of stressed assets, including those held by several public sector companies.

A landmark Public Sector Enterprise Policy was notified in February 2021, classifying 18 strategic sectors where state presence would be retained and outlining minority stake sales or privatisation in non-strategic ones. Defence and petroleum PSUs simultaneously received fresh capital expenditure under production-linked incentive schemes, expanding domestic manufacturing capacity.

Board professionalisation, performance-linked pay structures, and the use of listed PSUs for minority stake sales to meet fiscal targets have been the operational levers of this approach — balancing privatisation rhetoric with continued strategic state ownership.

Stakeholders and Impact

PSU employees — numbering in the lakhs across sectors including energy, steel, defence, and banking — are central to Thakur's framing, which explicitly credits the 'dedicated workforce' alongside government policy. Their productivity and morale have been cited by the government in successive economic documents as a driver of the turnaround narrative.

Retail and institutional investors in listed PSUs have also been direct beneficiaries, with several central public sector enterprise stocks delivering significant returns over the past several years as profitability improved and capital allocation became more disciplined. The broader economy has felt the impact through increased PSU-led infrastructure spending, which has underpinned headline GDP growth figures.

What's Next

The next Economic Survey and Union Budget will be closely watched for updated PSU profit aggregates and any fresh disinvestment or strategic sale announcements. If a Public Sector Enterprises (Regulation) Bill is introduced in Parliament, it could institutionalise the reforms Thakur is pointing to, giving them a statutory foundation beyond executive policy.

For the BJP, the PSU turnaround story is likely to remain a key plank in its economic governance narrative heading into future electoral cycles, with leaders like Thakur amplifying it on public platforms to shape voter perception of the government's decade-long record.