Until sometime ago, a country's infrastructure was financed, managed and owned by the state. However, with increasing demands and in keeping with the time, the private sector has been allowed to make a gradual entry into the field. But the private sector can never totally control what is popularly perceived to be an asset of public utility. Therefore, various forms of public - private associations are necessary to manage the infrastructure of the country. This is likely to be a worldwide trend, with the developed countries such as the US and UK taking the lead.

The Global-Investor Inc. defines, "Privatization as the sale of government-owned equity in nationalized industries or other commercial enterprises to private investors." The sale may either transfer all the equity to private ownership, or the government may retain some shares. Sometimes, governments will retain a majority shareholding (a `golden share') in order to be able to prevent the company from falling into the hands of an unwelcome bidder.

A Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a partnership between the public and private sector for the purpose of delivering a project or service which was traditionally provided by the public sector. The PPP process recognizes that both the public sector and the private sector have certain advantages relative each other in the performance of specific tasks, and can enable public services and infrastructure to be provided in the most economically efficient manner by allowing each sector to do what it does best.

Pure private financing is not an option in the case of assets which are used by the common man. The experience in many countries has shown that it is highly undesirable to leave the private sector in a situation of dominance in what is basically known as an `essential service'. One of the questions often asked is-why get into complicated issues like PPP? Is it really necessary to marry two distinctive cultures with two distinct objectives? Can we not either keep the project totally under the public domain (as it has been for centuries) or conversely leave it to the market forces (as we do for many industries and services)?

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