Will govt recalibrate its divestment ambition or programme?

Divestment has been one of the weak points in the government's performance report card. After putting out a lofty aim of raising Rs 69,000 crore through divestment (plus residual sales in private companies), the government has not been able to mop up even half of that, so far.

Part of the reason why big-ticket divestment has failed to take off is because of the global commodity slump that has wiped out market value of most state-run commodity-focused companies. With commodities expected to remain soft going into next year, the Finance Minister has his task cut out: either recalibrate next year's divestment figure to make it more realistic or take bold, potentially controversial steps by selling stakes in -- or possibly even consider privatising -- behemoths such as Air India, BSNL or some state-run banks such as IDBI.