Reliance keen to acquire HPCL

Monday, 16 December 2002, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India's private sector petroleum major Reliance Industries is keen to acquire a stake in state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL). "Let us first see the government policy in detail," Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said here Friday stating that his company would bid for a stake in refining and marketing major HPCL. After a stalemate of over three months, the government has finally worked out a compromise formula that would see strategic disinvestments in HPCL while the government stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation, another petroleum major, would be reduced through public offering. The government is still to come out with a clear policy on whether it would allow state-owned companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to bid for stakes in HPCL and whether any decision would be taken on barring others like Reliance to bid for a stake to prevent a monopolistic situation. Ambani said the government should work out a strategy for achieving higher growth than the current six percent. He also outlined a vision statement of India's future growth at a jam-packed 75th anniversary celebration meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Friday. India aims to achieve an eight percent gross domestic product (GDP) rate in the next five years. This year as a result of one of the severest drought in over a decade, India is expecting only around 5.5 percent growth, close to last year. "India needs to chalk out a feasible action plan to be a global economic superpower. It needs the vision and action plan that would regenerate growth," said Ambani. Describing India as a storehouse of talent, Ambani said the need was to focus more attention on agriculture, water management, IT, infrastructure and life sciences. Ambani said the "world will see two wars that will involve the whole of humanity. This would be the war for progress and talent". With developed countries in the European Union, the U.S and Japan facing an increasingly aging population, India was well placed to tap the need for a young workforce. "India has a once in a lifetime opportunity to activate its talent force," said Ambani. If India tapped just one percent of its talent pool, it could rake in $40 billion revenues year on year, thereby contribute 10 percent of the country's GDP, said Ambani. He said Reliance has decided to take on its rolls 45,000 technically qualified people under 31 years of age from different disciplines to power the company. He disclosed that Reliance Infocomm Ltd, the group telecom and communications arm, is well on schedule to launch its services on December 28, marking the birth anniversary of Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani.
Source: IANS