The recent Supreme Court judgment on the cement companies’ cartelisation case brings to mind Manmohan Singh’s favorite quote: “Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.”

India is not only butchered by corruption and inefficiency it has also got a lot of negative publicity in the media. It is time we recognise and honour regulatory bodies. This will send a strong signal to stakeholders who find it convenient to indulge in corrupt business practices.

The true measure of creative capitalism is the number of billionaires in a country and India scores poorly there. We seem to have more billionaires in sectors such as oil and gas where government backing is required to be successful – all at the cost of the aam aadmi who then receives inefficient services.. It is no surprise why there are strong political-business lobbies which oppose increased transparency and regulations, and want the existing status quo to prevail in sectors such as telecom, oil and coal where government decisions play a major role in the success or failure of business entities.

The cartelisation activity indulged in by some monopolies is a death knell to any entrepreneur, and this vicious cycle discourages foreign investors from setting up businesses in India. Not only do we need proactive interventions by regulatory bodies but also strong laws like in the US which deter corporate executives from indulging in such acts.

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