Govt should cut stake in PSUs8217;

It was emphasised at the conference that government should change its mindset that with 51 per cent equity it can have 100 per cent control and with 49 per cent equity zero control.

However, the agenda for action stressed that disinvestment would not provide the answer to sickness in the public sector and also not help tackle the same issue in the private sector.

The public-sector reforms, it was pointed out, would prove politically unfeasible and economically unviable in the context of growing unemployment and underemployment.

The agenda for action adopted at the SCOPE conferencealso underlined the need for reviewing the archaic labour laws which have become irrelevant in the post-Independence and post-liberalisation era.

Later briefing newsmen about the conference, International Management Institute IMI professor CS Venkata Ratnam said many countries like China and Vietnam have changed their labour laws in tandem with the new market realities and it was time for India to do away with the outdated laws and institutions.

The conference, among others, was attended by representatives of employers, trade unions, executives of the public-sector undertakings and officials from the International Labour Organisation ILO.