Defence- At Home and Abroad

of 481,434 non-government companies at work, as many as 22,406 belonged to the services sector.
A third interesting disclosure is the tendency of state governments to set up public corporations for every conceivable type of activity, particularly activities of a 'service' nature. The number of government companies increased from 142 in March 1961 to 282 in March 1970, but by March 1978 it had shot up to 745. Uttar Pradesh which had 11 companies in March 1970 and 41 in March 1974, now has as many as 85 companies. The number of state government companies in the other states also showed sharp increases. From the bare information on the number of state government companies, it is difficult to pass judgment on their usefulness. There is a general impression, however, that a large number of public corporations have been set up by state governments to seek financial assistance from the public financial institutions and to substitute such assistance for budgetary finance.