The article is a study of the private sector of Nepal's manufacturing industry. The article raises the issue that there is not only uncertainty concerning the magnitude of the private sector of Nepal's current manufacturing industry, there is also a great deal of uncertainty about the way this sector is constituted, since very little information is available in the current literature. The article aims to outline in fairly broad terms some of the major components of the private sector as it was constituted in 1985. (Rajeev Ranjan Singh 200702-07)