Regulating the regulators: Less diversity may weaken reform principle

Note that the erosion of these principles followed in the early years of reforms did not happen suddenly or only now. This occurred gradually over the last many years

Looking back at India’s reforms story of more than three decades, it is worthwhile to recall that economic liberalisation of the 1990s had a few implicit assumptions of how an economy should function and grow on a sustainable basis. One of those assumptions followed from the government decision to allow the private sector to operate in areas that were hitherto monopolised by state-owned enterprises. Under such liberalisation, it was assumed that while the government would continue to frame policies for areas opened up to the private sector, the regulation or enforcement of those policies would be undertaken by independent regulators