Preventive disclosure

The list of coal blocks that involve irregularities in allocation may be long but in an unusual move, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked the Supreme Court for permission to make public the list of coal blocks against which no criminality has been found. The principal reason that CBI has given for this request says much about India's business environment. Such a list would not only give the companies concerned some reprieve, CBI officials explain, it would also avoid the danger of con-men extracting bribes from businessmen to get their blocks out of the agency's radar.