Regulating India’s Coal Sector: Lessons for the Future, from the Past
JEL Codes- Regulated Industries and Administrative Law K23, Regulation and Industrial Policy L50
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54945/jjpp.v6iII.169Abstract
This essay will examine the desirability of establishing a regulator for the coal sector, and demonstrate its essentiality. The argument is centrally premised on the Government’s policy towards the coal sector, and how these policies are poised to turn the sector into the biggest contributor to India’s 5 trillion USD economic goal. With such lofty ambitions, it becomes imperative to ensure that there is an independent regulator, who can steer the sector into eficiency while balancing competing interests. Analysing the need for a coal-sector regulator becomes all the more important when considering how the history of the sector has been coloured with concerns of ineficiency, scams, human rights abuses, and environmental concerns. This paper will look at the historical context of the sector’s operation in India and the current policies, evaluate the eficiency of the sector by looking at the policy for allotments of coal blocks and the surrounding litigation, and attempts to chart out a way forward.