Regulators must remain independent, but play role to build markets: Kant

Regulators in the country must remain independent of the state, but they must bear the responsibility of building the markets to make India grow, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday.

"As a policymaker, my view is that all of us as policymakers and regulators, we should continue to strive to make India easy, simple and make it grow. And that should be our basic objective.

"The regulators must remain independent from the state,...they have all the independence, but they must be responsible for building the markets and play their role in 'Make In India' drive," Kant said at 'The Policy Dialogues for Future India' programme here.

Speaking at the event, Junaid Kamal Ahmad, country director for the World Bank in India, said regulators should not be an extension of the state and the regulatory reforms must go hand in hand with market reforms.

M K Goel, chairperson of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for Goa and Union Territories, said regulators should be allowed to regulate the entities according to their ground conditions.

He said the role of the regulators should be specific to those entities whom they regulate.

"Just implementation of government polices in a blanket manner across the board should not be the role of the regulators," Goel added.

Competition Commission of India Chairperson Ashok Kumar Gupta said, " I think regulator has to be very dynamic in its approach. One can always interpret various sections of an Act."