The Government of India has taken a number of steps over the years to improve the efficiency and performance of its SOEs. Corporate governance has been an important part of economic reforms, aimed at improving the performance and competitiveness of some of India’s most important national assets, allowing companies easier access to the capital markets, and making companies more transparent and accountable. The underlying goal is to reorient the state’s role away from a market player to a market regulator and away from day-to-day management towards exercising its core ownership rights based on sound corporate governance principles. To this end, the Department of Economic Analysis (Ministry of Finance) and the Department of Public Enterprises (Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises) requested World Bank support in assessing SOE corporate governance.