Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as a significant policy instrument in India’s broader privatisation and economic reform agenda. Rather than outright transfer of ownership, PPPs facilitate private sector participation in the financing, construction, operation, and management of public infrastructure and services. This study empirically examines the role of PPPs as an instrument of privatisation in India and evaluates their impact on economic efficiency and infrastructure development. Using time-series data for India over the period 1991–2022, the study applies the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to examine both long-run and short-run relationships among PPP investment, economic growth, public investment efficiency, and fiscal performance. The results reveal a statistically significant and positive long-run relationship between PPP development and economic performance, indicating that PPPs function as an effective quasi-privatisation mechanism. The Error Correction Term confirms a stable long-run equilibrium with a moderate speed of adjustment. The findings offer important policy implications for strengthening India’s PPP framework to support sustainable and efficient infrastructure-led growth