TNI Bureau: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has given ‘in principle’ approval for strategic disinvestment of equity shareholding in Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) of Odisha.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared several proposals including in-principle strategic disinvestment of equity shareholding in five small PSUs – Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation Limited (MMTC) (49.78%), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) (10.10%), MECON (0.68%), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) (0.68%) and two Odisha State Government PSUs; Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd. (IPICOL) (12.00%) and Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) (20.47%) in Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) to a strategic buyer, identified through a two-stage auction procedure.

NINL is a Joint Venture company, in which four CPSEs namely MMTC, NMDC, BHEL and MECON and 2 State PSUs of Odisha Government, namely IPICOL and OMC are shareholders.

The proposed strategic disinvestment of NINL would unlock resources to be used to finance the social sector/developmental programmes of the Government benefiting the public. It is also expected that the successful strategic buyer may bring in new management/technology/investment for the growth of the company and may use innovative methods for the development of the business operations of the company, which may generate more employment opportunities.