Dereservation
Topic: Industrial Policy, Public Sector, MSMEs and Disinvestment · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Dereservation means removing items or sectors from the protected list of the public sector or of small-scale industry. Once dereserved, private firms or large firms can enter. It was a key part of India's post-1991 reforms, because it opened markets to competition and investment.
Example
Industries reserved for the public sector were cut from 17 (IPR 1956) to 8 (1991), and now only atomic energy and railway operations remain. For small-scale industry, the Abid Hussain Committee (1997) urged dereservation, and the reserved list was fully abolished in 2015.
Don't confuse with
- Delicensing: this removes the need for a government licence to set up or expand a unit. Dereservation removes the rule on who may enter an industry at all.
- Disinvestment: this means selling government equity in a public enterprise. It is not the same as opening a sector to private firms.