Visakhapatnam: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman stressed that no single sector will be left completely in the hands of ‘only’ government.

Recalling the reforms brought by the Union government back in the 2021 budget at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s ‘Global Capability Centre’s (GCC) Business Summit, the finance minister underlined how the space sector flourished as soon as the new policy was introduced by the Centre in 2021.

“It was announced that even as the government’s presence will continue, the sector will be open for the private management too. The question then arose: ‘are we going to hand over the strategic sector, critical to national security, to the private operator?’ The answer to that was ‘no’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very clear when he said the government will be present as strategic sectors are important to national security. But it shall not shut its door to the private sector. That’s when the strategic disinvestment for public sector enterprises was announced back in the 2021 budget,” Sitharaman said, adding that startups flourished as soon as that policy was announced and made a big deal in the space sector.

Laying emphasis on the advantages of the policy, Nirmala Sitharaman said, “That is why today, startups are building small, miniature and large satellites. We are able to deliver the satellites for several agencies. The moment the new policy opened up, it gave way to newer opportunities.”