The public-private partnership model has emerged as the favoured model of project execution in India, especially in infrastructure, health and education. This article traces the theoretical underpinnings of PPP under a neoliberal, marketdriven and growth-oriented state. It describes the economic imperatives for public and private resource management and the case for PPP. It critically looks at the ramifications of this paradigm of economic growth and development, which has had limited success with certain projects, but has opened up issues relating to asymmetry of access, equity and efficiency and evidence of further marginalisation of the poor.