Electricity transmission pylons near the National Capital Region, on Oct. 7, 2021. (Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg)
Earlier this month, Ajay Shah and I advocated the complete privatisation of state-owned power distribution corporations in India. We said that government control was the fundamental reason why most discoms are in bad financial condition and why they are untrustworthy contractual counterparties. As control of the discoms rests ultimately with politicians, they are used to fulfill political and redistributive objectives. As an example,...