Highlighting the role of public sector enterprises in nation building, UD Choubey, director general Standing Conference of Public Sector Enterprises (SCOPE) said market capitalisation has shown confidence of investors in PSUs over the years.

“Future will tilt towards those nations that have good governance standards and PSUs can contribute to it greatly. Better value for customers, shareholders, government and society at large shall be the key focus of public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India,” Choubey said while addressing the inaugural session of Governance Now PSU awards 2014 in Delhi on Friday.

He also said that post-liberalisation PSUs faced competitiveness, have refocused their business and registered some remarkable success. Speaking about corporate social responsibility being mandated for profit making companies under the new Companies Act he said, “CSR is the most endurable strategy for an enterprise.”

Ashish Chouhan, MD and CEO, BSE said for a long time India was just seen as a raw material supplier to the world and the challenge was to become reliant on the manufacturing side. While PSUs have provided employment to people from diverse sections, he said, it became a challenge when many of them were just confined to providing employment rather than focusing on productivity.

He further said that though CSR has been an integral part of business in PSUs, it is important they make profits to invest in this activity.

“We need to introspect and improve our productivity and professionalism. A great thing that has happened to PSUs is that some of them have been listed now and that ensures transparency of performances.”

Laveesh Bhandari, chief economist at Indicus Analytics, highlighted the need to analyse the role of PSUs vis-à-vis the economy in the coming years.

By comparing India with China, he said, India is not very different from China in terms of economic growth. He also said Indian economy was moving steadily and would eventually become a much larger economy in the next 20 years.