In India the path chosen to reform the public sector has been to first deregulate and liberalise the economy and then to privatise public sector enterprises. Debates have raged on since then on: whether reform of state-owned enterprises is necessary; the choice of strategy and method; and the social and economic consequences of such policies. Sudhir Naib has incisively analysed, from a theoretically informed perspective, crucial aspects of this topical issue. Among the important aspects he discusses are:. - whether the failure of Indian public enterprises has been exaggerated. - can public ent.