The state after independence committed to provide and deliver essential public services to all its citizens free of cost and without discrimination as public goods. With the shift to a market economy, there has been a gradual withdrawal of this commitment and increasing transfer of this responsibility in part or full to the private sector. This directional change was rationalised as an economic solution to investment constraints and institutional reforms to achieve investment efficiency, expansion of access to difficult areas and disadvantaged groups and improvement in quality of these services. The book examines, conceptually and empirically, these claims and their impact on users of services in respect of six civic amenities in 17 papers written by subject experts and social activist. It also includes a comprehensive introduction which relates this move towards privatisation, particularly its most preferred form of public-private partnership, to the global debate on the issue besides tracing the historical roots of private sector participation in public services in Indian policy making.