Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Private Enterprise in India

  • Chapter
India, Mixed Enterprise and Western Business

  • 29 Accesses

Abstract

The present chapter on private enterprise in India and its companion immediately following devoted to India’s public sector sketch the historical and industrial framework against which India’s mixed enterprises have evolved. Taken together these two chapters set the stage for the development of this study and provide a body of information pertinent to an intelligent appraisal of India’s experiments. In this chapter, the material has been grouped under four headings. The first is an historical treatment of private enterprise. The second and third deal with financing industry — the role of the banks and managing agents respectively. The last section covers the profit picture in historical perspective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. D. R. Gadgil, Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times (London, 1944), pp. 48 ff.

    Google Scholar 

  2. German synthetic indigo ruined the export of indigo, but prior to the event, indigo was the most important business carried on by European capital in India, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1951, v. 12, 203 B.

    Google Scholar 

  3. The word ‘indigo’ brings unpleasant thoughts to Indians. To them it typifies the white man’s greed, dishonesty and oppression. Unfortunately many are convinced that the white man will always be as the history of indigo portrays him. This they say is the spirit of western business whether it be on the plantation or in the factory. D. H. Buchanan, The Development of Capitalistic Enterprise in India (N.Y., 1934), pp. 52–3.

    Google Scholar 

  4. C. N. Vakil, Economic Consequences of Divided India (Bombay, 1950), p. 289;

    Google Scholar 

  5. Buchanan, op. cit., p. 68.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gadgil, op. cit., p. 58.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Vera Anstey, Economic Development of India (London and N.Y., 1929), p. 281.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Vakil, op. cit., pp. 263 ff.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Reserve Bank of India, Report on Currency and Finance, 1955–6 (Bombay, 1956), pp. 216–7.

    Google Scholar 

  10. S. D. Mehta, The Indian Cotton Textile Industry (Bombay, 1953), pp. 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Anstey, op. cit., p. 261.

    Google Scholar 

  12. K. Mitchell, Industrialization of the Western Pacific (N.Y., 1942), p. 382.

    Google Scholar 

  13. India, Industrial Commission, Report, 1916; 1918 (Calcutta, 1918; reprinted London, 1919), pp. 65–6. No small part of this development was due to Parsis and Mohammedans. Parsis exercise an influence in Bombay cotton “out of all proportion” to their numbers (Anstey, op. cit., p. 232;

    Google Scholar 

  14. Helen B. Lamb, “The Indian Business Community and the Evolution of an Industrialist Class,” Pacific Affairs 28 (March, 1955), pp. 101–15).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. U.N. Statistical Year Book (N.Y., 1956), pp. 215–8.

    Google Scholar 

  16. India and Pakistan Year Book 36 (Bombay, 1950), p. 213.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Reserve Bank of India, Report on Currency and Finance, 1955–6, p. 126;

    Google Scholar 

  18. 1956–7, p. 104.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Buchanan, op. cit., p. 285.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Investor’s India Year-Books (Calcutta, 1926–7, 1943–4, 1951).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Indian Industrial Commission, op. cit., p. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gadgil, op. cit., p. 323.

    Google Scholar 

  23. M. C. Munshi, Industrial Profits in India (N.Y., 1948), p. 113.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Munshi, Ibid., p. 303.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Reserve Bank of India, Report on the Census of India’s Foreign Assets and Liabilities, 1950 (Bombay, 1952), p. 87. Sugar is not deemed important enough to mention as an industry with foreign capital in the Census.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Indian and Pakistan Year Book, 1950, p. 199. Small wonder that Nepa Mills were sponsored by the Government (Eastern Economist, Apr. 2, 1948, p. 688).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Investor’s India Year Book, 1951, pp. 203, 227; Second Plan, p. 412.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Ibid., p. 189.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Anstey, op. cit., p. 291.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Investor’s India Year-book, 1951.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Mitchell, op. cit., pp. 284–5.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  33. War and post-war industrial development is covered in the Report of the Fiscal Commission, 1950, and the 2nd Annual Report of the Indian Industrial Finance Corporation, 1950.

    Google Scholar 

  34. India, Planning Commission, The Five Year Plan, A Draft Outline (July, 1951), p. 146.

    Google Scholar 

  35. ECAFE Survey, 1947, pp. 94–5.

    Google Scholar 

  36. G. B. Jathar and S. G. Beri, Indian Economics (7th ed.; Bombay, 1945), pp. 11, 46.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Indian and Pakistan Yearbook, 1950, pp. 180 ff. This article contains interesting comparisons of American and Indian production (p. 184).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Material for this section is based on G. B. Jathar and S. G. Beri, Indian Economics, (9th ed., Madras, 1952), II, Chapter XI, which relies heavily on the Central Banking Enquiry Committee Report, 1931. This source was not available to the writer.

    Google Scholar 

  39. B. C. Ghosh, Study of the Indian Money Market, p. 87; quoted in Jathar and Beri, op. cit., p. 320.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Central Banking Enquiry Report, pp. 439–45, quoted in Jathar and Beri. op, cit., p. 320.

    Google Scholar 

  41. S. L. N. Simha, “Stock Exchange Reform,” Reserve Bank of India Bulletin, 2 (Feb., 1948), pp. 73 ff.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Reserve Bank of India. Report on Currency and Finance, 1951–2, pp. 64–5; Economic Weekly (Feb. 23, 1957), p. 275.

    Google Scholar 

  43. P. S. Lokanathan, Industrial Organization in India (London, 1935), p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Vera Anstey, Economic Development of India (London and N.Y., 1929), Jathar and Beri, Indian Economics, 9th ed., p. 24; Anstey, op. cit., pp. 112–15.

    Google Scholar 

  45. First Five Year Plan, p. 147.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Reserve Bank of India. Report on Currency and Finance, 1951–2, pp. 65–6.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Ibid., 1955–6, pp. 99–107.

    Google Scholar 

  48. For a reasonably up-to-date treatment of the managing agency system, see A. J. Brimmer, “The Setting of Entrepreneurship in India,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69 (November, 1955), pp. 553–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. M. H. Gopal, The Theory of Excess Profits Taxation (Mysore, 1947); M. C. Munshi, Industrial Profits in India.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Gopal, op. cit., pp. 96–7.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Munshi, op. cit., p. 59.

    Google Scholar 

  52. “Company Finances in India, 1950–3,” Reserve Bank of India Bulletin, 10 (April, 1956), 351–70.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Reserve Bank of India. Department of Research and Statistics, India’s Annual Liability on Investment Income Account (Bombay, 1952), mimeographed, Statement III.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Illinois University, USA

    Daniel L. Spencer (Associate Professor of Economics)

Authors
  1. Daniel L. Spencer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1959 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Spencer, D.L. (1959). Private Enterprise in India. In: India, Mixed Enterprise and Western Business. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0713-4_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0713-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-015-0212-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-0713-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation