The State Capacity Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the Forum of Indian Regulators (FOIR) and the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) are pleased to invite you to the next talk in the ‘Know Your Regulator’ talk series:
The event summary can be accessed here.
About the Talk
Food is regulated through a variety of activities that include setting food safety standards, developing guidelines, mandating disclosure, devising certification standards, testing of products, monitoring and supervision, and the imposition of sanctions and penalties. It also includes public education about food safety amongst the general public and to people and enterprises in the business of producing and selling food. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 provides the legal framework for food regulation in India. Following this law, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was established in 2008.
About the ‘Know Your Regulator’ Series
This talk series is jointly organised by the State Capacity Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the Forum of Indian Regulators (FOIR) and the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA). In this series, we will talk to the people entrusted with the task of regulating Indian markets and various parts and aspects of the economy. These are the chairpersons and members of India’s regulatory agencies.
In our conversations, we will seek to explore the public nature of regulatory activity. In other words, why should the work of regulatory agencies be of interest to people, as producers, consumers, professionals, service providers, and as citizens? What are the public goals of regulation? In what ways does the work of regulation involve having to make a balance, or to make trade-offs, or to amicably resolve competing or even conflicting claims of public and private interest?
Regulatory agencies are a relatively recent innovation of the Indian state, set up to address the evolving needs of the Indian economy in the decades since the 1990s (although with some notable older instances). We are interested in exploring the institutional form of the regulatory agencies, their features, norms and values, and their frameworks of decision-making and rationality. We are also interested in the functional domain and the everyday administration of the regulatory agencies, their staffing, procedures, information systems and operational modalities.
Regulatory agencies are envisaged as a state agency that can respond to complex and changing situations, both at the level of policy recommendation and in case-specific ruling. In the conception of regulatory agencies, this was thought of as a challenge that would be addressed through specialisation, expertise and in the design of their power and functions. However, each regulatory agency is also unique, in terms of the way in which its regulatory mandate is designed and the nature of the challenges that it is set up to address. In this talk series, we will seek to explore the regulatory debates (both broad and sectoral) that animate the world of regulation, and how it relates to the rest of us.
About the Institutions
The Forum of Indian Regulators (FOIR) was established as a registered society in 2000, with the purpose of providing a common platform for the members of Indian regulatory agencies to discuss emerging issues in regulatory procedure and practice, to evolve common strategies, and to share information and experiences. It aims to promote the growth and development of independent regulatory bodies. FOIR currently has 37 members, including the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA), Competition Commission of India (CCI), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP), Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority (WDRA), Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and 29 State Electricity Regulatory Commissions.
The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) is a civil service training institute under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India for the Indian Corporate Law Service cadre. It also functions as a think tank and provides research and capacity building services to the Ministry, and to the corporate sector, professionals and related stakeholders. IICA provides crucial support to the Ministry in formulation of corporate regulations to tackle the requirements of a dynamic economic environment. It has been authorised by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India to run its flagship Graduate Insolvency Program.
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research institute. Established in 1956 as a public-private partnership, NCAER was funded by both the government and private industry. NCAER’s work falls into four thematic areas: (1) Growth, Macro, Trade, and Economic Policy; (2) Investment Climate, Industry, Infrastructure, Labour, and Urban; (3) Agriculture and Rural Development, Natural Resources, and Environment; and (4) Poverty, Equity, Human Development, and Consumers. The focus of NCAER’s work in these areas is on generating and analysing empirical evidence to support and inform policy choices.
The State Capacity Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) The State Capacity Initiative at CPR is an interdisciplinary research and practice programme focused on addressing the challenges of the 21st-century Indian state. The purpose of this initiative is to place the critical challenges of building state capacity at the heart of the field of policy research in India, where it has always belonged but remains surprisingly marginalised. We, therefore, start with first principles and ground ourselves in existing realities to deepen and expand the understanding of the challenges and possibilities of building state capacity in democratic and federal India. Our programme of work focuses on the changing roles of the Indian state; institutional design, implementation and administrative capacity especially at the state-level; the particular challenges of regulatory and fiscal capacity; and the complex and changing relations between society, politics and state capacity in India. The Initiative works across sectors and states to identify and address a number of critical, cross- cutting/ transversal issues and is both interdisciplinary and comparative in its approach, learning as deeply, broadly, rigorously and responsively as required.
