130 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 7.0 I he foregoing entails a much larger role for the public sector in the economic life of the country which the public sector in its present form is incapable of fulfilling. The question of poor performance of the public sector will naturally be raised. However, the generally poor financial performance and low capacity utilisation in the public sector is a consequence of the pricing policy, bad management and the age of plant and equipment. It must be remembered that a substantial part of public investment in the infrastructure industries has completed 20 years and more of service. Massive investments for re-tooling and modernisation of these units are called for. Such modernisation would not only reduce production costs but also generate a larger volume of output of basic goods, of which we are large net importers. This would conserve foreign exchange and give a much needed boost to the country's capital goods industry. 7.1 A public sector run by bureaucrats often with litde commitment to the nation and riddled with corruption and inefficiency, cannot be expected to provide a lead for self-reliant development in the interest of the people. Clearly what is called for is a democratisadon of public sector by associating workers—industrial, agricultural, tachnical, scientific—in the decision-making process of public enterprises in various spheres, and linking it'with the planning process. 7.2 To be sure, the association of the working people in the running of state enterprises can activate these enterprises into fulfilling their social role, only if the working people themselves transcend their immediate sectional interests and develop the required level of consciousness. But the very pursuit of our economic strategy directly aiming to benefit them and relying upon their participation would have the effect of enthusing the working people into taking the active lead in social transformation.