The government has set up an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to oversee and guide the coporatisation process of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

The development comes months after the government's decision in May this year to corporatise the OFB into one or more than one 100 per cent government-owned corporate entities to improve its autonomy, accountability and efficiency.

The EGoM will oversee and guide the OFB corporatisation process, including transition support and redeployment plan of employees while safeguarding their wages and retirement benefits, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) statement said on Friday (11 September).

Other ministers in the EGoM are Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Law and justice Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievance and Pension Jitendra Singh, the MoD said.

According to its Terms of Reference, the EGoM will decide whether the OFB should be converted into a single Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) or multiple DPSUs. It will also look into issues related to various categories of employees, including protection of their salary and pension of existing employees.

The EGoM will also look into the financial support that may be provided to the single or multiple DPSUs and to make them economically viable and self-reliant; grandfathering of orders already being executed by OFB or for which facilities are created in OFB; and decide about the treatment for land assets of OFB.