Best of Opinion: IDBI sale revives hopes for stalled disinvestment drive | Opinion Specials

Hello and welcome to Best of Business Standard Opinion, our wrap of the day’s editorial page. Sebi’s revised closing auction rules address the volatility and unpredictability that followed the introduction of the closing auction session in August, particularly for derivatives traders. The new framework, effective December 7, restores the volume-weighted average price method for expiry-day settlements and aligns the trading cutoff for expiring index derivatives with cash markets. Our first editorial notes that India’s auction volumes remain around 1 per cent of daily cash turnover, making closing prices vulnerable to manipulation, unlike in the US. While the changes restore a crucial link between cash and derivatives markets, Sebi must deepen auction participation, strengthen stock lending and borrowing, and improve short-selling mechanisms. Nearly a quarter of India’s 155 Institutions of National Importance operate without permanent leadership, with vacancies and interim arrangements disrupting decision-making, academic planning and research partnerships. Today’s second editorial warns that these gaps compound existing faculty shortages, with 29 per cent of sanctioned teaching posts in central universities vacant as of December 2024, rising to 56 per cent at professor level. Delays persist even when selection processes begin well before incumbents’ tenures end, raising concerns about administrative efficiency and institutional autonomy. The government should initiate appointments six months before vacancies arise, enforce transparent timelines, limit interim arrangements and strengthen independent, merit-based selection to safeguard higher education and India’s development ambitions. A K Bhattacharya examines the Narendra Modi-led government’s renewed disinvestment drive, led by the recently-approved IDBI Bank sale, against a disappointing record of strategic privatisation. Four privatisations since 2021 have yielded just Rs 2,818.73 crore, while minority stake sales have accounted for most disinvestment receipts. The government’s growing reliance on PSU dividends and increased equity infusions and loans has further complicated the picture. With fresh listings planned, Bhattacharya calls for transparent reporting of disinvestment and asset monetisation receipts, alongside closer scrutiny of government investment in PSUs. The objective should be stronger returns from public assets without compromising overall capital expenditure. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code’s impact extends beyond resolving distressed firms, argue Aaraadhya Srivastava, Pratibha Kumari and Jithin P. Faster resolutions and higher recoveries initially strengthened lenders’ confidence, improving credit availability and costs. Research shows distressed firms took greater risks while improving operating performance, while import-dependent firms with more pledgeable assets increased capital-goods imports by about 31 per cent relative to comparable peers. However, rising resolution times threaten the framework’s credibility. With restructuring taking an average 1,026 days and liquidation 1,378 days in April-June 2026, the authors contend that timely recovery is essential to sustaining lending, investment and financial stability. Veenu Sandhu reviews John Zubrzycki’s The Shortest History of Delhi, a compact yet richly layered account of a city shaped by successive empires, cultural upheavals and competing visions. Tracing Delhi from its legendary association with Indraprastha through the Sultanate, Mughal and British periods, Zubrzycki blends historical evidence with vivid portraits of rulers, chroniclers and ordinary inhabitants. The review highlights his account of Partition as pivotal to the city’s modern identity, while praising the maps, photographs and informative sections. The book also critiques Delhi’s chaotic expansion, crumbling infrastructure and Central Vista redevelopment, portraying the capital as an unfinished, constantly contested work in progress.