Over the past decade India has been undertaking a programme of economic reform, and at the same time the economy has been growing at a high rate. As part of the reform programme, and in line with prevailing economic thinking, India has been privatising its large, ungainly public sector. One assumption underlying this programme is the dogma that public sector enterprises are doomed to inefficiency, and that competitive market forces can be relied on to make firms more efficient once they are privatised. But is this really true? Combining rigorous data analysis with case studies to provide a balanced evaluation of the process of deregulation and privatisation within the overall context of economic reforms, the author demonstrates, remarkably, that, contrary to the prevailing view, private sector firms do not outperform public sector firms across all sectors. He also shows that revenue-raising considerations have weighed more heavily with the government than efficiency objectives. Overall, this study of the reform process in India, with its unique longstanding mix of private and public sectors, will be of great interest to all those studying reform and transition worldwide.

This book is a comprehensive work which incisively analyses, from a theoretically informed perspective, crucial aspects of India’s journey from partial divestiture to privatisation, accompanied by case studies of enterprises being privatised in FY 2022. Naib begins with the economic role of the state followed by theoretical and empirical evidence on the state versus private ownership in the first two chapters. Next, an overview of public sector in India including the New Public Sector Enterprise Policy for Atmanirbhar Bharat-2021 is discussed, before a broader examination of the global experience with privatisation is done. Naib then goes on to explore India’s journey from partial divestiture to privatisation from 1991 to 2021 in four time slots based on the political party in power. The book also looks at big ticket privatisation and asset monetisation proposed in FY 2022. Many criticised the design of National Monetisation Plan as it may lead to concentration of wealth, increasing inequalities, asset stripping, and consumers paying higher charges. The book closes by presenting six instances of big-ticket privatisations ranging from airlines, airports, banks, insurance, as well as industries such as petroleum and telecoms. The book’s timely data and analysis of key developments will interest researchers in the fields of divestiture and privatisation in India.

These volumes virtually cover the whole Islam in a nutshell, which makes them reader-friendly. This multi-volume is essential for all scholars, researchers, students and general readers, the world over.