SUNIL KUMAR
Abstract:
India presents an unusually productive setting for comparing organizational performance across public and private domains. Decades of planned development have produced an elaborate government apparatus, while the liberalization of 1991 set loose a private sector that is, by several measures, among the most competitive in Asia. This paper examines three dimensions of sectoral performance efficiency, innovation, and accountability drawing on empirical data spanning 1991 to 2018. The findings resist a neat verdict: the private sector shows stronger results on efficiency and innovation metrics, but this advantage is neither universal nor unconditional. Public institutions demonstrate structural advantages in formal accountability, particularly on equitable access and legal compliance obligations that markets do not replicate. The paper cautions against treating privatization as an automatic remedy for public sector underperformance, and identifies convergence zones where deliberate institutional learning across both sectors is likely to produce more durable gains.
