capital investment requirements of profitable and revisable PSUs.
In view of the difficult economic situation caused by the global slowdown of 2008-09 and a
severe drought in 2009-10, Government approved a change in the policy for utilization of
Disinvestment proceeds by granting a one-time exemption to utilize the disinvestment proceeds
directly for selected social sector schemes allocated by Department of Expenditure/Planning
Commission. In order to align the NIF with the Disinvestment Policy, Government decided that
the disinvestment proceeds, with effect from the fiscal year 2013-14, will be credited to the
existing NIF which is a public account under the Government Accounts and the funds would
remain there until withdrawn/invested for the approved purposes.
It was also simultaneously decided that the NIF would be utilized for the following
purposes: subscribing to the shares being issued by the CPSE on rights basis so as to ensure that
51 per cent ownership of the Government in CPSEs is not diluted; preferential allotment of
shares of the CPSE to promoters as per SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements)
Regulations, 2009 so that Government shareholding does not go down below 51 per cent in all
cases where the CPSEs desire to raise fresh equity to meet their Capex programme, the
Government further approved inclusion of the following purposes to be financed from the NIF.
Investment by Government in RRBs/ IIFCL/NABRAD/ Exim Bank; equity infusion in various
Metro projects; investment in Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited and Uranium
Corporation of India Ltd; investment in Indian Railways towards capital expenditure.
Demonetisation of Banknotes
The Government demonetised 500 and 1,000 banknotes on November 8, 2016. All 500 and
1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi series ceased to be legal tenders in India from
November 9, 2016. New 500 and 2000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi New Series in
exchange for the old banknotes were announced. However, the banknote denominations of 100,
50, 20, 10 and 5 of the Mahatma Gandhi series remained legal tender and were unaffected by the
policy. The government said that the demonetisation move was an effort to stop counterfeiting of
the current banknotes allegedly used for funding terrorism, as well as a crackdown on black
money in the country.