During the last two decades, the macro-economic policy environment in
India has undergone a substantial change. These policy changes
especially those relating to the liberalization of trade and industry
and new initiatives to integrate the Indian economy with the global
economy have certainly influenced on the competitive performance of
Indian industries. In this direction it is essential to measure the
impact of above stated policy changes on Indian industries by
classifying into capital and labour intensive industries. Because, the
effect of economic reforms on capital and labour intensive industries
are not similar due to heterogeneous characteristics of these
industries. Hence the author make a modest attempt to compare the
performance of capital and labour intensive industries in terms of three
key indicators of industrial performance, namely, productivity, export
and employment generation. The first two factors are important for an
industry to compete in international market and last indicator is so
essential in the context of labour abundance and acute unemployment
problem in India.