Can't apply ordinary rules to India. We are special.

"One of the most ambitious plans to emerge from India's recently announced budget was the government's proposal to privatize state-owned companies in the coming years," wrote Suyi Kim. "Proponents of such an agenda believe it makes companies and sectors more efficient and competitive, to the ultimate benefit of consumers." India is a socialist state and Socialism was inserted into the preamble of the Constitution by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. There are innumerable social schemes to distribute subsidies to poor people and the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added many more to the list. The Japanese National Railways (JNR) was broken into six regional companies and privatized gradually since 1987. The companies have become "consistently profitable". The Indian Railways had 1.254 million employees in 2020. In 2019, Union Minister Piyush Goyal announced that "Indian Railways will provide over 400,000 jobs in the next two years", Business Today. With the national cabinet consisting of 21 cabinet ministers, 9 ministers of state with independent charge, and 29 ministers of state, genuine privatization will take away a lot of posts for politicians. To pay for all this the government has to raise taxes. India has the highest taxes on petrol and diesel in the world which adds to transport costs of all goods and services, including Railways. Taxes on fuel constitute 40% of costs of operating an airline in India, The New Indian Express. Taxes, fees and surcharges constitute over 50% of the base fare, Cleartax. After paying 40% tax on fuel and around 50% in fees on ticket price, airlines do not have the power to charge passengers. The Indian government has given itself the power to cap the prices of airline tickets, as it did last year during the pandemic, Hindustan Times. So, not only were airlines ordered to reduce number of passengers to implement social distancing, they could not make up their losses by charging other passengers more. The government has shortlisted 4 banks for privatization, Zee News, but it will not privatize all public sector banks because these banks can be ordered to give loans to weaker sections of society without due diligence. Rs 817.81 billion was distributed in October last year. Such loans are defined as priority sector lending. In 1969 all commercial banks holding over Rs 50 crore were nationalised," wrote Matt Kilcoyne. "In 1980 all remaining banks were nationalised." "And of course, political interference meant a huge spike in non-performing assets (NPAs)." "Corruption, cronyism, nepotism, investment and divestment based on patronage and not profit. These are what kept India down." And, these are the source of political power. No political party or prime minister is going to get rid of these, no matter what he lectures. NPAs are expected to increase to over 10% this year as individuals and businesses default on their loans because of the pandemic-induced economic slowdown and not for any fault of their own. Telecom sector was privatised and licenses were distributed on a first comer basis in 2008 but the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) calculated a loss of Rs 1.76 trillion to the exchequer because licenses were not auctioned. All 122 licenses were cancelled by the Supreme Court inflicting enormous losses on companies which had spent on infrastructure. All the accused have been acquitted by the Supreme Court. Selling public assets does not improve government finances wrote Prabhat Patnaik. "The only difference between a fiscal deficit and selling public assets lies in the nature of the government paper that is handed to the private sector, but the macroeconomic consequences of a fiscal deficit on the economy are no different from those of selling public assets." India is special. Ordinary rules don't apply.