Industry asks for more

But the government's economic package has a lot going for India's private sector

Nobody could have missed the emphasis that the government laid on the private sector while announcing the economic package in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Rs 21-trillion economic package announced about a week ago in five instalments to help the economy recover from the Covid-19 shock had an ample dose of policy changes aimed at enhancing the role of the private sector in the Indian economy.

A new public sector enterprises policy was announced to restrict the role of state-owned enterprises only to government-defined strategic areas. Even within strategic areas, no more than four public sector enterprises would be