This is a trend taking place not just in the Aditya Birla group, but in Indian corporates across the board. And the impetus for this change comes from the power of the markets. Indian industrialists, even the most powerful of them, have realised that they have to satisfy the markets, if they want the resources for growth and acquisitions. The power of markets is therefore the power of money. Even before the markets were freed, bankers had no difficulty in getting information from a company-that too was because of the power of money. The trouble was that bankers had to keep the information tothemselves. In contrast, when a company sells itself to investors, it has to satisfy a wide range of them, both existing as well as potential investors.

And sophisticated institutional investors are keen on the maximum transparency. Under these circumstances, companies have no alternative but to make shareholder value the new mantra. And since shareholder value is in the ultimate analysis linked to getting the best out of assets, a focus on shareholder value is good for the economy as a whole. This is the reason why the private sector has restructured, and it holds lessons for the public sector as well. Submitting companies to the discipline of the markets is the best way of enforcing public accountability.