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The Indian bus transport industry is dominated by the publicly owned State Transport Undertakings (STUs). Most of the STUs have, over the years, accumulated financial losses. However, since STUs offer their services with a social aim, financial losses faced by them may not be bad per se. For publicly owned organizations, efficiency and effectiveness are more important than mere profitability. This paper attempts to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of fifteen major STUs in India for the period 2003-04 to 2013-14 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The paper also examines STUs' scale elasticity and its relationship with firm size. It is found that the STUs operating in the state of West Bengal are not only the least efficient but also the least effective whereas Andhra Pradesh state road transport corporation, which is the largest bus transport operator in the world, is the most efficient and effective operator. In general, there is a strong positive correlation between STUs' efficiency and their effectiveness. On the other hand, there is a negative relationship between size of the STUs and returns to scale; large size firms are showing decreasing returns to scale whereas small size ones are operating on increasing returns to scale. Therefore, a size correction through mergers, demergers or altering scale of operation, as the case may be, will be economically prudent.

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PurposeThe Indian power sector is dominated by coal. Environmental awareness and advances in techno-economic front have led to a slow but steady shift towards greener alternatives. The distributions of both fossil fuel resources and renewable energy potential are not uniform across the states. Paper attempts to answer how the states are performing in the sector and how the renewable energy and conventional resources are affecting the dynamics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) to rank the performance of Indian states in the power sector. Multi-stage analysis opens up the DEA black-box through disaggregating power sector in two logical sub-sectors. The performance is evaluated from the point-of-view of policy formulating and implementing agencies. Further, an econometric analysis using seemingly unrelated regression equations (SURE) is conducted to estimate the determinants of total and industrial per-capita electricity consumption.FindingsEfficiency scores obtained from the first phase of analysis happens to be a significant explanatory variable for power consumption. The growth in electricity consumption, which is necessary for economic wellbeing, is positively affected by both renewable and non-renewable sources; but conventional sources have a larger impact on per-capita consumption. Yet, the share of renewables in the energy mix has positive elasticity. Hence, the findings are encouraging, because development in storage technologies, falling costs and policy interventions are poised to give further impetus to renewable sources.Originality/valueThe study is one of the very few where entire spectrum of the Indian power sector is evaluated from efficiency perspective. Further, the second phase analysis gives additional relevant insights on the sector.

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