Bhopal Gas Tragedy a Case Study

Case Summary modern industry. Both believed that only a mixed economy, in which state-owned enterprises operated the major sectors of the economy and private enterprise guided by considerable government regulation to protect workers and the general public, would successfully meet the economic challenges facing the country. In India, steel making, railways, shipping, aviation, and electrical power generation were the most prominent industries dominated by state-owned firms; the nascent Indian chemical industry was a mix of state-owned and private firms. In its Resolution on Industrial Policy in 1948, the Indian government expressed a strong preference for Indian enterprise, but indicated willingness to allow some collaboration with foreign firms: … while it should be recognized that participation of foreign capital and enterprise, particularly as regards industrial technique and knowledge, will be of value to the rapid industrialization of the country, it is necessary that the conditions under which they may participate in Indian industry should be carefully regulated in the national interest. Suitable legislation will be introduced for this purpose. The follow-up legislation included limits on foreign shareholding in Indian firms, so that multinationals could not own 100% of their Indian subsidiaries but had to share ownership with Indian nationals. It also preferred collaboration only when the foreigners owned technology not available in India. The government hoped to determine the terms on which Indians could acquire technology by law, but its early preference for importing “at the lowest cost” and not paying license fees on imported technology for more than 5 years (typical patent protection lasts 20) had to be modified in the face of foreign companies’ unwillingness to make deals with Indian firms (state-owned or private) on those terms. Thus, the Indian government fell back on a system of requiring that subsidiaries of foreign firms be part-owned by Indian