As India looks at “domestic growth drivers” in a difficult global environment, 17 top PSUs will invest a whopping Rs 1,40,000 crore next year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

Asking more investment from the state-owned firms, Singh said, “I would encourage the remaining central public sector units (CPSUs) also to similarly pay attention to boosting capital investment”.

“Public investment is needed at a time when the country is facing a difficult global environment and looking to domestic drivers of growth”.

Giving away the SCOPE excellence awards to top-performing PSUs, the Prime Minister said, “I am extremely happy to learn that 17 of our largest CPSUs have committed to investment plans amounting to Rs 1,40,000 crore in the coming year”.

He also asked these firms, especially in the mining sector to scout for assets abroad for raw material security.

“Notwithstanding the difficulties, we must step up our performance in mining, especially in production of coal, oil and gas,” Singh said, adding companies in the mining sector should “seriously explore opportunities for such acquisitions”.

The Union Cabinet recently approved a policy on acquisition of raw material abroad and the Indian missions have also been asked to chip in the strategic initiative.

Singh said India needs huge investments – both public and private particularly in the area of infrastructure.

Assuring government support, he said, “we are of the clear view that both public and private sector need to work together to meet the demands of our rapidly growing economy”.

Pulok Chatterjee, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, recently met PSU chiefs asking them to roll out their investment plans to boost the domestic demand.

The Prime Minister made a strong case for increasing the share of manufacturing in the country’s economy.

“We need to perform better in manufacturing. We must increase the share of manufacturing sector in our GDP from the present unsatisfactory level of 15 per cent,” Singh said.

Attributing the decline in share of manufacturing in the economy to difficult economic environment, he asked CPSEs “to embark upon ambitious plans of expansion to make the target of 12-14 per cent growth in manufacturing a reality”.

“Our government remains supportive of those CPSEs which needs assistance to become viable again,” he added.

He also asked the CPSEs operating in fields like machine tools, heavy transport, mining equipment, ship-building, defence equipment, aerospace and nuclear power generation, to provide special focus on their expansion plans.

To stay competitive in times of rapid changes, he said that the CPSEs need to concentrate on good corporate governance, strategic planning, innovation, research and development and quality control.

The government, he added, has been taking steps to improve the working of CPSEs.

These include signing of MOUs and conferment of Navratna and Maharatna status on them.

“But we cannot be satisfied with a status quo. Our government will do whatever is required to make the CPSEs stronger and more competitive,” he stressed.

Praising the performance of CPSEs like IOC, NTPC and Coal India, he said, “Some of these companies figure in the 500 biggest companies of the world.”

The Prime Minister earlier gave awards to several CPSEs including Indian Oil, NTPC, Engineers India, ONGC Videsh, National Seeds Corporation, BHEL, SAIL, Power Finance Corporation, Coal India, GAIL, Wapcos and MMTC.