The Forum of Free Enterprise is a non-political organization founded in 1956 by A. D. Shroff, and has been established to educate public opinion in India on free enterprise and a democratic way of life. The Forum publishes booklets to further its objects. The following booklet titled “The Privatisation Phenomenon and Its Relevance to Developing Countries” was published on July 15, 1988, and was authored by Mr. Jiban K. Mukhopadhyay. The author in this paper intends to locate the importance of privatisation for developing countries like India, in the late 1980s. The paper starts off by tracing the genesis of the global wave of privatisation as an antidote to excessive nationalisation of industries, during the 1980s Prime Minister Thatcher’s era. Author then proceeds to define privatisation in a broad sense that encompasses everything – including divestiture and denationalisation. Then the author proceeds to survey the development of the concept of privatisation in the context of developed countries (Western European and the USA), communist style privatization (Soviet Union and China) and the developing countries (Asian and Latin American). Author in the last part distinguishes between Public and Private sector – highlighting the strengths of the latter in terms of generation of profits, enhancing the management ethos and increased accountability. The paper ends by stressing on the nexus between positive growth and privatisation based on economic pragmatism as opposed to merely based on ideological preferences.