The State Capacity Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), 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:
‘Know Your Regulator’: Focus on Water Regulatory Authorities
Speakers: Mr K.P. Bakshi, Former Chairperson, Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority will be in conversation with Dr Abha Yadav, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and Director of the Forum of Indian Regulators (FOIR) Centre at IICA, Dr Srinivas Chokkakula, Ministry of Jal Shakti Research Chair – Water Conflicts & Governance and Fellow, Centre for Policy Research and Ms Arkaja Singh, Fellow, State Capacity Initiative, Centre for Policy Research.
The session will also be live-streamed on the CPR Facebook page.
In case of any issues and for any queries, please email at communication@cprindia.org.
The background note can be accessed here.
The event summary can be accessed here.
About the talk
The Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) is the first independent statutory regulatory authority in the water sector in India, while the Punjab Water Regulation and Development Authority (PWRDA) is the newest addition to the club of state-level water regulatory authorities in India. These authorities are unique in that they have been set up without the usual context of privatisation, market regulation or consumer protection, which we have seen with many of the statutory regulatory authorities. Rather, the problems of the sector are of policy and institutional reforms, and the need to ensure judicious, equitable and sustainable use of water resources. A briefing note about MWRRA and PWRDA is available here.
About the ‘Know Your Regulator’ Series
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 our conversations with the regulators, we will seek to explore the regulatory debates (both broad and sectoral) that animate their world, 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 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.
