Being an engineer, I have no idea about this...

I’ve recently been reading a lot about how my government (India) has been trying to get out of the business of running businesses. Its been doing that by gradually selling all the companies it owns (and theres a LOT of them). There is however a big controversy about how they’re going about getting rid of the said companies, and the debate is on about whether the government should privatise or disinvest.

As mentioned in the subject field, I know nothing about this. I was under the impression both terms are essentially the same. Obviously, they aren’t. Can someone enlighten me please?!

I’m no expert on this either, but I believe the distinction is that when a company is privatised the entire company is sold to a private concern or private investors. When disinvesting, only a percentage of the ownership becomes private and the government still owns some percentage of the business.

Someone with more expertise in this can provide more details.