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India has enormous public wealth. This is the wealth that is owned by the people and controlled by the government. The Union, State and local governments in India own massive amount of wealth directly or through various public-sector enterprises, ownership of mineral resources, control of airwaves, and ownership of marine resources within territorial waters of India.

Breakup of Dhan Vapsi Fund

Resource		Value (₹ lakh crore)	Value per household (₹)
Surplus Public Land		340	13,60,000
Natural Resources		1,001	40,04,000
	Hydrocarbon	302	12,08,000
	Mines & Minerals	678	27,12,000
	Radioactive Substances	21	84,000
Value of Dhan Vapsi Fund as on February 2018		₹ 1,341 lakh crore	₹ 53,64,000
Durtion Dhan Vapsi Fund can last		53 Years

Only the mineral resources of India have been estimated to be worth more than ₹5000 lakh crores of wealth according to analysts. This sum is equivalent to over ₹40 lakh per person in India. Apart from that, there are thousands of acres of land parcels controlled by the government. By our estimates, the known public wealth of India is over ₹1590 lakh crore, which equals to over ₹50 lakh per Indian family. This figure is from a very conservative estimate of the wealth of the people. We have taken only 25% of the mineral wealth of the country to arrive at this figure. In addition, the undiscovered public wealth of India is yet to be categorised and valued. Except for Defense and Railways, most other ministries and departments of the Union Government do not even know how much of land and resources they own . While some of the public resources are being used to support essential government services, most of them are lying idle across the nation due to gross misuse and poor management.

All governments in India, be it central, state, or local, have contributed to the degradation of resources belonging to the people. When millions of our compatriots live in abject poverty, such a situation is unacceptable. It is important to note that even though public wealth includes common resources such as roads, government offices, airports, etc. we have not included those resources in the Public Wealth Wiki.

Background

Historically, the ownership of public wealth belonged to the kings in India and most other parts of the world by the invocation of the divine rights or through means of coercion. Presently, the rights over the public wealth belong to the democratically elected Indian government, which is obligated under the constitution to use this wealth for public good.

Ancient India

In ancient India, even though the Kings represented the State, the mineral wealth did not vest in them. They were only entitled to receive the taxes or revenue form the production or extraction of minerals. Simultaneously, the ownership of other public resources such as forests and water bodies were shared by the community which relied on them. However, the ownership of mineral resources gradually transferred to the state beginning with the empire of Chandragupta Maurya, particularly as Kautilya justified state monopoly over mineral resources in his seminal work Arthasastra. The ownership of resources other than minerals, such as forests and water bodies, continued to be with the kings or the community in one form or the other across India till the arrival of the British East India Company.

British India

The British East India Company started using the power of the state to acquire private property for public use as early as 1824 in Bengal and other parts of India. The Bengal Regulation I of 1824 allowed the Company to obtain private properties by paying a fair price for construction of “roads, canals, or other public purposes” when the Company only had limited rights related to taxation and trade as per the powers bestowed on it by the British Crown. Thus, all acquisitions conducted under the Bengal regulation and similar laws in other parts of India were patently illegal until 1857 when the British Crown took over control of India. Following that, the British acquired most of the natural and mineral resources of India; either by acquisition with meagre compensation or by coercion. Concurrently with the British rule, different princely states in India adopted similar policies with respect to the ownership of public wealth. While some states adopted the state’s ownership of public wealth, others bestowed the ownership to the community. Some states neglected the issue altogether and adopted a non-property attitude towards public wealth and kept it as commons, particularly in case of forests and water bodies.

Modern India

The Constitution of India bestows the ownership and control over using resources is in hands of the central and state governments under various articles. However, individuals and corporations can make use of the public resources under a license from the government. Since independence, there has been no concrete effort by the central or the state governments to define public wealth or regulate the same in a meaningful manner, instead the governments have chosen to deal with the issue on an ad-hoc basis. Noting the same, the Hon’ble Supreme Court, while announcing the judgment on 2G scam in 2012, observed – “no comprehensive legislation has been enacted to generally define natural resources and a framework for their protection.” Given the constitutional provisions, the Indian state is the trustee and legal owner of the public wealth of India under the doctrine of public trust, which "enjoins upon the Government to protect the resources for the enjoyment of the public rather than to permit their use for private ownership or commercial purposes". Natural resources belong to the people, but the State legally owns them on our behalf.

Public Wealth of India

Public wealth is the sum of the public assets collectively owned by all citizens of the country. The government is the manager of this public wealth. It comprises of public commercial assets under the government, such as various natural resources, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and commercial real estate. The term public consists of wealth owned by all the levels of government namely, central, state, and local levels. Public assets do not comprise public property, which refers to assets and resources that are available to the entire public for use, such as roads and bridges, public parks, protected wildlife sanctuaries. Public wealth consists of assets or operations generating an income that could be given some kind of market value if properly structured and used. Typical examples include:

• minerals
• real estate such as Lutyens Bungalow Zone (New Delhi), Navy Nagar (Mumbai)
• central and state public sector enterprises
• financial institutions
• land banks available with various state land development authorities and in special economic zones (SEZs)
• land and buildings under the government for provision of non-essential functions .

The total public wealth recorded from publicly available information is ₹ 1,341 lakh crore (₹ 53,64,000 per household ) as on October 2018.

Land

Land among capital, labour and entrepreneurial skills is one of the four fundamental resources that determines the size and productivity of an economy. Land in India is suffering from an artificial scarcity created out of a high cost of acquisition from excessive regulations. Major urban land parcels are lying vacant and unused locking valuable land available in the market. The following calculation points out there is ample land available in the country –

If one places 1.2 billion people in four-person homes of 1000 square feet each, and two workers of the family into office/factory space of 400 square feet, this requires roughly 1 per cent of India's land area assuming an FSI of 1.

Yet the price of land in a city like Mumbai or Delhi is much more compared to cities like New Jersey. The government owned land is part of the problem. An estimate holds that governments own as much as __ per cent of total available land in the country [IDF report pick the number/ idea]. This keeps away productive land from falling into private hands for generating revenue and employment. Government bodies like Bombay Port trust own as much as ___ acre of prime property in Mumbai. Bombay port Trust has no land records for ____ amount of property owned by them.

Table 2 and Table 3 point out the surplus land available with various governmnet bodies owned by central and state governments.

Table 2: Surplus Public Land Under Central Government

#	Body Name	Area (acre)	Value (₹ crore)
1	Air India	NA	8,000
2	Railways	6,407	2,70,406
3	Defence	296,914	24,53,664
4	Department of Posts	1,146	366
5	Delhi Development Authority	5,675	1,00,000
6	Heavy Engineering Corporation	5,000	14,560
8	Hindustan Machines and Tools Ltd.	471	997
9	Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)	2,982	6,140
10	Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd	938	20,224
11	National Textile Corporation	1,158	25,622
12	Port Trusts	27,379	20,02,717
13	Richardson & Cruddas	76	9,824
14	Steel Authority of India Limited	29,008	58,149
15	Lutyens Bungalow Zone	6,177	19,32,683
Total		X acre	₹ 68.62 lakh crore

Table 3: Surplus Public Land Under State Governments

#	Body Name	Area (acre)	Value (₹ crore)
1	Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board	5,675	48,480
2	Punjab Urban Development Authority	7,337	14,848
3	Karnataka Public Land Corporation Limited	474	6,000
4	State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakahnd Limited	2,016	3,988
5	Rajasthan State Industrial Investment and Corporation Limited	1,150	2,645
6	Assam Industrial Development Corporation	471	2,350
7	Haryana Revenue Department	674	1,414
8	Haldia Development Authority	624	730
9	Ranchi Industrial Area Development Authority	184	630
10	Bihar Industrial Area Development Auhtority	144	285
11	Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority	73	150
12	Odisha Revenue Department	5,40,725	217.95
13	Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation	1,508	3,038
14	Maharashtra Dairy Development Department	3,198	8,11,000
15	Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation	7,540	4,485
16	Special Economic Zones	72,847	1,47,401
17	Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority	75	1,320
18	Gujarat State Warehousing Corporation	33	67
19	Delhi Gram Sabha	622	1,18,453
20	Haryana Irrigation Department	2,421	4,899
Total		X acre	₹ 19.76 lakh crore

Minerals

The total value of the mineral resources of the country is estimated to be ₹5000 lakh crore. However, this number is highly conservative. The central or state governments do not have a dedicated database which lists all the resources under their control with the appropriate market values. The number also excludes the unexplored resources and spectrum under control of our governments. The number was calculated by using data available in the public domain by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, a public-policy think tank based in New Delhi. The calculation only includes –

• Stocks of hydrocarbons in the country such as coal, lignite, crude oil, natural gas, etc.
• Major mined and mineral resources stock in the country.

According to an estimate by Schlumberger in 2015, India holds a minimum of 300 trillion cubic feet (Tfc) of gas and oil resources. An estimate of US Geological Survey reveals that India might be the world's second-largest holder of gas hydrate reserves. The total amount of reserves that India has can be between 300 and 2,100 (Tfc) as per the estimate by Schlumberger in 2015.
According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the total 4.67 billion cubic meter (BCM) of natural gas was produced by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India Company (OIC) and Private Joint Ventures in the year 2017-18. These companies have been producing natural gas from fields/blocks located in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. The total balance recoverable reserve of natural gas is about 198 BCM in North-Eastern states.

Mineral Wealth of India

#	Mineral	Total Reserve (tonne)	Value (₹ crore)	Price (₹ thousand/ tonne)	Method of Pricing (₹ crore)
1	Antimony	1 lakh	490	518	Export Parity
2	Asbestos	22.2 million	350	62,875	Import Parity
3	Barytes	73 million	5.2	38066	Export Parity
4	Betonite	568 million	26.6	15,10,969	Export Parity
5	Borax	74.2 thousand	20.2	150	Import Parity
6	Calcite	20.94 million	4.7	9782	Import Parity
7	Chromite	203 million	16.5	3,35,934	Export Parity
8	Copper	1.56 billion	45.3	70,69,237	Export Parity
9	Diamond	31.92 million	0.207/carat	661	Export Parity
10	Diaspore	5.98 million	1	598	Export Parity
11	Diatomite	2.9 million	8.9	2,554	Export Parity
12	Dolomite	7.7 billion	2.3	17,55,856	Import parity
13	Felspar	132 million	3.4	44,595	Export Parity
14	Fireclay	713.5 million	2.5	1,80,923	Export Parity
15	Fluorite	18.2 million	9.8	17,878	Export Parity
16	Fuller Earth	256.7 million	3.4	87,786	Average Cost
17	Garnet	56.96 million	7.5	42,762	Export Parity
18	Granite	116 billion	12.3	14,29,39,709	Export Parity
19	Gold	493.69 million	1920/kg	9,48,59,391	Average Cost
20	Graphite	174.85 million	32	560591	Import Parity
21	Gypsum	1.2 billion	1.3	1,71,950	Export Parity
22	Titanium	394 million	5.1	2,01,376	Export Parity
23	Iron Ore (Hematite)	17.9 billion	4.6	81,76,992	Export Parity
24	Iron (Magnetite)	10.6 billion	4.6	48,42,241	Export Parity
25	Kyanite	103.24 million	13.6	1,40,480	Export Parity
26	Sillimanite	66.98 million	11.4	76,201	Export Parity
27	Andalusite	18.5 million	2.4	4,440	Export Parity
28	Lead & Zinc	685.6 million	22.6	15,50,625	Export Parity
29	Limestone	184.9 bilion	0.136	25,08,236	Average Cost
30	Magnesite	335 million	8.7	2,92,824	Export Parity
31	Manganese	288 million	0.709	20,431	Export Parity
32	Marble	1.93 billion	1.2	2,25,475	Average Cost
33	Mica	5.3 lakh	17.7	942.6	Export Parity
34	Molybdenum	19.3 million	11.7	22,627.2	Export Parity
35	Nickel	189 million	1,000	1,88,41,797	Export Parity
36	Ochre	144.26 million	12	1,74,869	Export Parity
37	Platinum	15.7	70 /kg	109	Export Parity
38	Potash	21.8 billion	20	4,34,08,755	Export Parity
39	Quartz and Silica	3.5 billion	5.6	19,72,584	Export Parity
40	Quartizite	1.25 billion	30	37,35,119	Import Parity
41	Silver	467 million	37/kg	17,12,471	Average Cost
42	Talc/Steatite/Soapstone	270 million	6	1,61,744	Export Parity
43	Tin	83.73 million	0.152/kg	12,72,696	Average Cost
Total			₹ 33,90,35,819.8 crore

Methodology

Land values and Floor Space Index

The Floor Space Index (FSI) is the ratio between the area of a covered floor space (built-up area) to the area of that plot on which a building stands. An index of 1 implies that the total covered floor space is 1000 Sq. Ft. on a plot of 1000 Sq. Ft. The Floor Space Index in New Delhi ranges from 1.2 to 3.5 meaning that 1200 to 3500 Sq. Ft. of floor space is available for every 1000 Sq. Ft. plot there. All the value of unused public land is calculated based on the FSI value of 1. The rates for the land have been calculated according to the prevailing rates of rural, semi-urban, and urban land in the country.

Minerals

The estimated values of the mineral resources are based on a detailed study done by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, a think-tank based in New Delhi, in 2014. The author of the report has mentioned that he calculated the value of minerals based on the information from the public domain from various governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Land

The data on the unused public lands was collected by researchers at Free A Billion from authoritative governmental and non-governmental sources. These sources include Parliamentary Questions, data collected by various NGOs and think-tanks, government databases, information available from various Ministries and Departments of the Government of India.

References

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