The state level public enterprises (SLPEs) were set up specially to meet the gaps in the social and economic development, especially industrial growth, employment creation, health, education, and provision of amenities. Services like electricity, medical care, transportation, irrigation, tourism, warehousing and water facilities reached people in far-off places due to the setting up of the SLPEs. Over the years, the central enterprises have been subject of study and discussion, however, the SLPEs have remained unexplored. The present volume analyses the various facets of functioning of the SLPEs in India. Based on primary as well as secondary data sources, it covers both the macro view and the state-wise scenario. The book highlights the gap between expectations and achievements. It suggests that to develop a greater understanding of the potential, problems, and prospects of the SLPEs, more information should be generated and focused research needs to be undertaken.

R.K. Mishra, Sr. Professor and Director, Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), Hyderabad, India, is a graduate of International Management Program, SDA Boccioni, Milan.

He has been a Fellow of British Council and Commonwealth Secretariat and a Task Force Member on Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development. He is a member of the UN Task Force on International Task Force on Standards of Excellence in Public Administration and Education and is associated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project on ‘Macro-Economics of Poverty Reduction’ carried out by RBI’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR). He has handled assignments for the Union Ministries of Finance, Power, Heavy Industries, Trade and Commerce, Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, and Disinvestment. He has prolifically published many articles and books and conducted several training programmes in this area.

Ch. Lakshmi Kumari is Assistant Professor in the area of Economics at IPE, Hyderabad. She is a resource faculty to various MBA programmes. She is presently working on the database on State Level Public Enterprises. She has been associated with various research projects in the area of public enterprises and has organised a number of training programmes.

K. Srinivas is an assistant professor at IPE, Hyderabad. He has published more than 20 research papers in national and international journals of repute. He is Post Graduate in Economics from Andhra University and summer course in economics at CERGE–EL, Charles University, Czech Republic. His areas of interest includes applied economics with special reference to social and economic development, technology management and innovations, public enterprises, issues in development economics and public policy.