EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies Vol.2 Issue 7, July 2012, ISSN 2249 8834 Online available at http://zenithresearch.org.in/ www.zenithresearch.org.in 1 P3 IN THE NORTH REGION OF INDIA DR DHARUV PAL SINGH* *Associate Professor, Department of Commerce, Government College, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh – 177001, India. ABSTRACT The concept of public private partnership (P3) has attracted worldwide attention and acquired a new resonance in the context of developing countries. P3 are increasingly heralded as an innovative policy tool for remedying the lack of dynamism in traditional public service delivery. However P3 have also become mired in a muddle of conceptual ambiguities. During the course of the 11th Plan, Government of India has taken a series of policy initiatives to accelerate the pace of investment in infrastructure, particularly in PPP domain. This paper sheds light on the P3 concept and the rationale for invoking private participation in the north region of India .The main objective is to assess the performance of northern region vis-à-vis other regions, and intra-regional variations in terms of P3 projects. KEYWORDS: Resonance, public service delivery, infrastructure. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Following the end of the cold war and a global disillusionment with statist and socialist ideals, much of the developing world has been adopting principles of free markets and seeking participation in the world trade system. Growing appreciation of the importance of the market mechanism, coupled with the success of privatization in various countries have sharply increased interest in the continuously emerging public-private partnership (P3) phenomenon. P3 has become a rather popular institutional arrangement, as they are perceived to remedy a lack of dynamism in traditional public service delivery. Yet there has been no systematic evaluation of the policy requirements for successful PPP implementation. This is particularly true in developing countries that have only recently started to experiment with various practical applications of cooperation between the public and private sectors. Several factors help account for the increased interest and popularity of P3. The promise of efficiency savings and a reduced burden on strained public resources has certainly struck a positive chord in countries operating under tight budgets. The appeal of P3 can more generally be explained in terms of their expected benefits, including access to private finance for expanding services, clearer objectives, new ideas, flexibility, better planning, and improved incentives for competitive tendering and greater value for money for public projects (Spackman, 2002; Nijkamp et al., 2002).