Privatization of State owned enterprises has raised a lot of passion, heat and dust around the world, especially after the huge successes this policy had in the United Kingdom and Germany, Latin American countries, Asia and Africa. But very soon, it came to be recognized that Privatization did create many problems, such as lack of transparency, pseudo capitalism and many other associated evils. The welfare aspects of privatization also tended to be given inadequate attention in the privatization process.

In the rush to privatize, many countries ignored the welfare role of the State. In particular, the negative aspects of Privatization relating to labour came to be recognized and initiatives began to be taken to lessen these negative social aspects. These were, however, not adequate and resulted in impoverishment and considerable hardship to labour and led to questions on the wisdom of pursuing Privatization Policies.

In this book, the author examines the privatization processes in Sri Lanka and India and the implications that it has for various sections of society. The book also examines the measures that need to be adopted to minimize the negative societal implications of labour restructuring on account of Privatization, in the light of international experience.

This book is the first detailed analysis of the subject of societal implications of labour restructuring in Asia and will serve as a useful reference book for researchers and scholars of privatization, besides policy makers and practitioners.

The book carries a foreword by G.V. Ramakrishna (First Chairman, Disinvestment Commission, Government of India)

In conducting monetary policy a Central Bank primarily tries to influence behaviour of the commercial banks. The response of commercial banks to monetary policy actions is, thus, a key element of monetary policy. In view of the resurgence of the credit channel of monetary policy and episodes of credit crunch, world-over the issue has gained currency.

Against the backdrop of financial sector reforms in India, it is in this context that this book looks into the theory, stylized facts and empirical evidence on the relationship between commercial banks’ behaviour and monetary policy. The book presents an analytical account of the credit channel of monetary transmission and looks into the modified IS-LM model with an independent banking sector. Econometric evidence of the book is pointer to the fact that not all the banks respond uniformly to monetary policy. Attributes like ownership, size, liquidity, or capitalization play important roles in determining the nature of response. The book also examines futuristic issues like consolidation of the banking sector in light of the evidence.

Partha Ray is currently a Director at the Department of Economic Analysis & Policy, Reserve Bank of India. For more than a decade he has been involved with applied economic research with policy content at the Reserve Bank of India.