Disinvestment process is being speeded up to meet the target of 30 thousand crore rupees this year. This will also will help the state-owned companies to hit stock markets in time. Sources said the direction was given by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram at a recent meeting of officials. Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram and Disinvestment Secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan were present.

The meeting was called to review the progress made on disinvestment and prepare a roadmap for the sale of stakes in Public Sector Units.

The government last month deferred the initial public offer - IPO - of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd due to weak stock market conditions. The Department of Disinvestment proposes to begin the stake sale process in September.The Union Cabinet had already cleared disinvestment in SAIL. 

The stake sale in blue-chips like BHEL, HAL and Oil India is also in the pipeline.Due to uncertain market conditions, the government in the last fiscal raised only 14,000 crore rupees from disinvestment against the target of 40,000 crore.