Why in news? Indian Railways’ PSUs, RITES Ltd and IRCON granted Navratna status.

Highlights:

• Ircon International Limited (IRCON) and RITES Ltd(RITES) both Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of Railways, have been announced as 15th and 16thNavratna respectively among CPSEs.
• The Ministry of Finance will confer ‘Navratna’ status on RITES and IRCON.

About RITES Ltd

• RITES Ltd is a leading transport infrastructure consultancy and engineering firm in India.
• It provides services in the diverse sectors of transportation, railways, export of rolling stock, highways, airports, metros, urban engineering & sustainability, ports & waterways, and energy management.

Criteria for grant of Navratna status :-

• The Miniratna Category – I and Schedule ‘A’ CPSEs, which have obtained ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ rating under the Memorandum of Understanding system in three of the last five years will be eligible
• They have composite score of 60 or above in the six selected performance parameters, namely,

(i) net profit to net worth,

(ii) manpower cost to total cost of production/services,

(iii) profit before depreciation, interest and taxes to capital employed,

(iv) profit before interest and taxes to turnover,

(v) earnings per share and

 (vi) inter-sectoral performance.