Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced in the budget presented for the financial year 2021-22 that the government will raise Rs 1.75 lakh crore by selling to some government companies in the next financial year. Some of the companies to which the government will sell will be sold completely, while some companies will be partially sold. At the same time, the money will be raised through IPOs of some government companies. In last year’s budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman had set a target of raising 2.1 lakh crore rupees from similar disinvestment. Of this, Rs 1.2 lakh crore was to be raised through disinvestment of public sector companies, while Rs 90 thousand crores were to be raised by selling their stake in financial institutions.
But due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown that caused it, the functioning almost came to a standstill and this exercise stopped. Along with this, the business of companies sold, and their economic condition also declined. Therefore, the government has now decided to raise Rs. 1.75 lakh crore instead of Rs. 2.1 lakh crore by revising its target.
The government has also created a department under the Ministry of Finance to make the disinvestment process easier. The name is Department of Investment and Public Asset Management or DIPAM. Here two methods of selling a stake in companies are adopted.
First: Disinvestment means the government selling a stake in its companies. Generally, private sector companies buy this stake of the government.
Second: Withdrawing IPO. Under this, the government removes some shares of its companies in the stock market for the common people. For example, let us assume that 10 percent IPO (Initial Public Offer) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was withdrawn. That is, the government sold 10 percent of its total stake in LIC to the common people through the stock market and earned money.
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The money raised from disinvestment comes in the capital side of the budget (the capital account). The government spends this money on the infrastructure development of the country, railways, highways, schools, hospitals, ports, etc.
Now, let’s talk about the companies that the government is going to sell in whole or in part. The largest government company among these is Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). This company has the status of ‘Maharatna’ company. Now you will ask what is a Maharatna company?
Actually there are 3 categories of government companies in the country: Maharatna, Navratna and Miniratna.
Maharatna category includes the largest public sector companies, such as Indian Oil, ONGC, BPCL etc.
Mid-sized government companies have been kept in Navratna category.
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At the same time, small government companies fall in Miniratna category.
Maharatna status is given only to companies which fulfill the following conditions:
The company should already have the status of Navratna company.
Listed on the Indian stock market with the minimum prescribed public shareholding under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulators.
The average annual turnover of the company for the last 3 years should be more than Rs 25,000 crore.
The average net worth of the company should be more than Rs 15,000 crore in the last 3 years.
The average annual net profit of the company in the last 3 years should be more than Rs 5,000 crore.
The company should perform well in the international market.
On all these terms, 10 public sector companies are able to meet the requirements. BPCL is one of them, whose disinvestment process is said to be completed by next year. The government’s stake in the company is around 53 percent. In 2019, the government had decided that it would sell its stake in this company. Disinvestment of BPCL is the most discussed among the common people and opposition parties. However the remaining companies to be disinvested include Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, Nilanchal Ispat Nigam Limited etc. But people do not know much about them. One reason for this is that they are all medium and small sized companies. That is, Navratna and Miniratna fall into the category.
Now let’s talk about the financial institutions which come under the ambit of disinvestment and IPO.
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In this, the name of LIC is the first and the name of everyone. The Finance Minister has announced in his budget speech that the government will sell ‘some shares’ of LIC in the market. But for this, the government will not adopt the method of disinvestment, that is, direct shares will not be sold to any other company. Instead, the IPO of LIC will be taken out and it will be available to the common people like the rest of the stock market. The Finance Minister had also announced this in his last year’s budget speech. But nothing could happen due to Corona. Now the Finance Minister has repeated his same announcement again.
Along with LIC, the government has also announced to sell its stake in IDBI Bank. The government currently holds more than 46 percent stake in IDBI Bank. The government has also said that 2 public sector banks will be privatized. However, the finance minister has not mentioned the names of these two banks in the speech. Perhaps this was done in view of the possibility of uproar by the employees of these banks.
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Ontario Sunshine List is released every year and it reveals the salaries of public sector workers who take home a salary in excess of $100,000. This year the list features 300,570 names which is 30,000 higher than last year of public sector employees with salaries over $100,000. The Ontario Sunshine list also features five employees working at the Ontario Power Generation who are among the top 10 earners with the province’s highest salary nearing $2 million.
Ontario had passed the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act in 1996 under the Mike Harris government and the stated aim of the act was to make the government more transparent and accountable. The $100,000 limit was a big deal then.
However the $100,000 in 1996 in relative terms in 2024 will be equivalent to $180,564.97. If you remove 300,570 people on this year’s Ontario Sunshine List for that salary threshold there you drop 279,781 names. In other words there will be many people who will not be able to own a house without help from family or an inheritance.
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In a nutshell it means that employees who take home a six figure salary package will still feel the pinch of Canada’s affordability crisis. The soaring inflation and rising cost of living a $100,000 salary doesn’t guarantee financial security in many parts of the country.
Also, to maintain the $100,000 threshold today, the province should have adjusted it to $55,381.73 in 1996. Ontario has fixed a threshold of $100,000, while the threshold varies in other provinces. Alberta, for example, has set a threshold of $125,888 for government employees and $150,219 for people in public sector bodies.
Not much information is available for the federal government, but a Canadian Taxpayers Federation access-to-information request revealed that 110,593 employees in the federal public service earned $100,000 or more in 2023.
There are a couple of options for Ontario and other governments with non-indexing disclosure requirements. Resetting the threshold to a number that makes more sense today and then continuing to index the threshold going forward seems feasible.
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We also don’t need to reveal the names of all individuals. The government could report aggregated salary ranges by job title rather than disclosing specific names below a second, lower threshold. This would maintain government accountability and transparency by still disclosing who the highest earners are.
As it stands, we have a list that publishes the names and salaries of potentially hundreds of thousands of people who could not afford to buy a house. This doesn’t seem aligned with the original intent of the disclosure act.
Some features of the Ontario Sunshine List 2024 are as follows:
The highest paid employee took a pay check of $1.9M
Public sector employees were paid salaries in excess of $100K
The Ontario Sunset list top position is held by Kenneth Hartwick, CEO of the electricity Crown Corporation with a salary of $1.93 million followed by chief strategy officer Dominique Miniere $1.2 million and chief projects officer Michael Martelli drawing $1 million as salary.
Public sector workers were paid counting in Bill 124 compensation
2024 budget revealed that Ontario deficit will triple
CEOs of the Hospital for Sick Children and the University Health Network figured in the top 10 list and each drew a salary of $850,000 each while CEO of the provincial transit agency, Metrolinx drew a salary of $838,097.
17 professors or associate professors at the University of Toronto drew a salary in excess of $500,000
Caroline Mulroney, president of the Treasury Board, stated in a release,
“The largest year-over-year increases were in the hospitals, municipalities, and services, and post-secondary sectors, which together represented approximately 80 percent of the growth of the list.”
Andrew Dudum, CEO and founder of Telemedicine Company Hims & Hers is facing flak on the social media after his reported statement that he wants to hire students and protestors who are taking part in the protest in support of Palestinians in Universities across the US.
A number of tech sector founders has also condemned his statements.
Dudum had posted on X,
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“If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people and for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working. There are plenty of companies and CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.”
He also posted a link to a page showing open positions at Hims & Hers.
X users have expressed their disapproval and have even called for a boycott Hims & Hers, and others said they are selling their stock in the company.
Cofounder of Palantir Technologies as well as the managing partner of early stage venture capital firm 8VC Joe Lonsdale responded on X and said
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“Real moral courage doesn’t involve joining a mindless mob, chanting anti U.S. and other woke pablum, following instructions not to debate or discuss your positions at all yet being indignantly righteous, while large numbers in the mob chant for violence and block Jewish students.”
While Hims & Hers spokesperson said Dudum were not available for comments, old posts by Dudum have been unearthed which puts in context his actions. Days before the horrific attack by Hamas’ terrorist against Israel on October 7, Dudum had posted –
“In pursuit for peace: Our leaders need to embrace nuance.”
Dudum further explained that he is a Palestinian American and had roots in and family in the West Bank and Gaza and said Hims & Hers’ values are based on a respect for human dignity and life.
Dudum wrote
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“It is upon those values that I believe all leaders and CEOs should use their platform today to call for an immediate cease fire. To actively recognize Israel’s right to defense and also recognize the means and manner in which they are responding violates international law. I ask us to find nuance, and share our voice today to help save innocent lives.”
Deadly protests have hit U.S. college campuses through last month and protest encampments have sprung across more than 40 colleges nationwide.
Police crackdown is on and there have been more than 1,900 arrests or detainments following a wave of activism at universities across the country.
Hims & Hers is a Telemedicine Company that links consumers with licensed healthcare professionals, enabling access to high-quality care for conditions related to sexual health, mental health, and more. It also offers its own range of products and is in a partnership with Los Angeles-based Hustle & Co. on media relations.
Trouble for Microsoft and OpenAI over copyright infringement is not coming to an end, as they face several lawsuits for violating copyrights.
On Tuesday, eight US newspaper publishers sued Microsoft for illegally reusing articles in AI products.
The 98-page long lawsuit further accused the tech companies of attributing erroneous information to the publishers.
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The eight newspapers that have filed the lawsuits include the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune.
They allege that OpenAI’s ChatGPT used their copyrighted articles to perfect its language models without permission.
The lawsuit was filed in a New York federal court on Tuesday. The publishers claim that OpenAI’s large language models, GPT-2 and GPT-3, were perfected using datasets containing text from their newspapers.
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The language models are designed to produce text based on human inputs and reproduce copies of the publishers’ works. Microsoft has been indicted for using newspapers for its Bing search index but seldom provided links to the original articles. Four months ago, The New York Times also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the tech giant of using data from its past content. It also asked for consent for usage, criticizing the use of full article excerpts in chatbot responses.
The latest lawsuit filed by the eight news outlets also demanded consent and fair value for using their content to perfect the AI language models. The lawsuit alleged that the AI tools literally regurgitate their content without directing users to the content source.
The lawsuit filings stated, “This lawsuit arises from defendants purloining millions of the publishers’ copyrighted articles without permission and without payment to fuel the commercialization of their generative artificial intelligence products, including ChatGPT and (Microsoft’s) Copilot.”
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The eight newspapers that instituted the lawsuits are as follows:
The New York Daily News and The Chicago Tribune, both owned by Alden Global Capital
The Orlando Sentinel
The Sun Sentinel
The San Jose Mercury News
The Denver Post
The Orange County Register
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
OpenAI’s Response
OpenAI did not directly respond to the accusations but stated that it takes great care to support the news and media outlets. It also stated it is in continuous partnerships and conversations with various news outlets around the world to explore new opportunities, discuss problems, and seek out solutions.
Microsoft also stated that OpenAI has entered into fruitful partnerships with a number of publishers, which includes The Financial Times, The Associated Press, Spanish conglomerate Prisa Media, and Germany’s Axel Springer.
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