56 SOCIAL SCIENTIST industry specialization (which could reap economies of scale or could help achieve technological breakthroughs by undertaking worthwile R & D activitities). The average dividend on the paid up capital came down to 12.6 per cent from 13.2 per cent earlier. The number of companies declaring equity dividend of 15 per cent or more has come down from 249 in 1981-82 to 238 in 1982-83 and 221 in 1983-84. The loss making companies are not ones which are small and isolated entities. The overwhelming majority of these happen to be associated with one or the other big business group. If one were to conduct an intensive inquiry into the distribution of equity shares of the industrial houses, one may discover that the real stakes of the management, families, closely held companies and the private trusts are marginal, whereas they do happen to enjoy command over the financial and other resources of the society. While the intercorporate investments get cancelled out, the investment of the financial institutions keeps accumulating. The record of the 400 largest private sector companies establishes that during 1975-76 and 1983-84 the exports rose from Rs. 493 crores to Rs. 803 crores whereas the imports during the same period went up from Rs. 358 crores to Rs. 1196 crores resulting in a foreign exchange outflow ofRs. 462 crores in 1983-84 as against a net foreign exchange gain ofRs. 93 crores in 1976. Transnational companies operating in India are increasingly looking towards the domestic market for expansion. That then is the brief sketch of the Indian private corporate sector. There is hardly anything in the above that would be inspiring to the public sector in spite of the claims of the protagonists of privatisation of the public sector. Is Public Sector Productivity Low ? The qu^tion of productivity is often confused, since there cannot be any universal measures for productivity. Also, there are inadequte standards of measurement. What are the factors that should be taken into consideration in measuring productivity ? Are factors like health of workers to be considered a productive endeavour or proper educational facilities which would ensure a better generation of the work force ? Do we only consider a productive venture as just the input/output ratios of various machines aggregated ? Is that the sole criteria for the measurement of productivity ? The evidence available from economists like Prof. Dolakia suggests that in terms of total factor productivity, the public sector performance has been better than that of the private sector over a time series. Total factor productivity of private and public sector: Private Sector Public Sector 1960-1961 100 100 1967-1968 92/93 118.4 1975-1976 102.75 188.79