Infrastructure Regulation and the Market Efficiency Gap

An article caught my eye today. It is titled “Biting the Silver Bullet” in the Economic Times and is about the need to improve regulation of infrastructure (utilities) which speaks of dismantling superfluous ministries and concentrating on strengthening regulatory institutions in India and doing it now when a (political) revolution of sorts is underway and change is perhaps possible. Significantly he points out the need to improve infrastructure rather subsidize services to make them accessible to all.

Personally I believe that much of the lag in telecom penetration in India is the consequence of poor regulation especially in the fixed line segment. There is a pressing need to undo some of the competitive neutrality issues in USOF regulation too. 

My views on this subject can be seen in posts under Market Efficiency Gap and Competition