The Sebi-CERC turf war over control of trading in energy as a commodity

The stakes are indeed steep because international traders in this market are often massive entities who could swamp a regulator with little experience

As several exciting futures markets for commodities in the energy sector--chiefly electricity but also gas and coal--spring up, differences within the government about who should run them could be a spoiler. The differences may not remain academic. Unsavoury developments in the futures markets for commodities from gold to castor seed forced the government to bring all of them under the regulatory watch of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in 2015. It began as turf war and then threatened to become a political storm engulfing senior ministers in the UPA government such as Sharad Pawar and later Pranab