Not just tycoons, India's asset monetisation plan must treat all fairly

Australia has lessons for India's plan on managing a fair deal for taxpayers and ensuring public utilities work and are affordable.

The asset-recycling craze that got under way in Australia with the 2013 leasing of Port Kembla and Port Botany near Sydney is reaching India. So is the fear that handing over control of public utilities to a small private sector will hurt the consumer.

The cash-strapped Indian government has identified 6 trillion rupees ($81 billion) in existing revenue-generating assets, which it will monetize over four years to fund an ambitious $1.5 trillion pipeline of new infrastructure. But while New Delhi aims to replicate the fundraising success overseas, it also needs to heed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod