The worst performing public sector companies of India

India's centrally owned white elephants, otherwise also known as public sector enterprises, notched another year of spectacular losses as 82 state-run companies totalled Rs 25,045 crore in combined losses for the last fiscal.
The top five loss making companies contributed nearly 70 per cent of these losses, with telecom company BSNL leading the charge - recording a loss of Rs 4,793 crore, representing 19.14 per cent of the total losses.

The maharaja of poorly run enterprises, Air India recorded a loss of Rs 3,952 crore in the financial year 2016-17 - contributing almost 16 per cent of the total losses of the State-run enterprises.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., a two-city operation, whose acronym MTNL was the subject of some tongue-in-cheek humour during its heyday upto the early 1990s, was the third worst performing public sector undertaking, with a loss of Rs 2,941 crore - representing 11.74 per cent of total losses.

Hindustan Photo Films, which makes photographic paper, X-ray films, photographic film, graphic arts films and cine films, continues operating, despite being declared sick over two decades back and ordered for closure 15 years back. It recorded a loss of Rs 2,917 crore, representing 11.65 per cent of combined PSU losses.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is a Maharatna PSU, though with two years of consecutive losses totalling nearly Rs 7,000 crore, it will be difficult for the government to justify its status - considering one of the criteria for being declared a Maharatna is to earn an average annual net profit of Rs 5,000 crore in the last three years.
SAIL recorded a loss of Rs 2,833 crore in the last fiscal, representing 11.31 per cent of total PSU losses.