INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
Technological innovations are a single most important source of productivity growth the world
over especially in developed economies where resources are abundant in the hand of
intellect entrepreneurs giving an opportunity to exploit the full potential of the technologies
simultaneously with high investments in research and development resulting in
the evolution of new technologies and thus keeping up the high pace of growth in
economic systems. The scenario in developing economies is not so similar. The resources in
these economies are highly constrained and opportunities for developing and adopting new
technologies have started dwindling. The productivity growth of these economies can be
maintained with efficient utilization of resources at disposal. In these situations,
measurement of efficiency becomes an important subject both for applied as well as basic
research. The applied research on the quantification of (in) the efficiency of an economic system,
industry, or firm will provide a prescription to the policymakers to make necessary
corrections in the management of resources. The basic research is to ensure the use of
appropriate methodology to arrive at an accurate measure of efficiency
