Arresting the pandemic of corruption
Economic Times, August 29, 2011

By Pradeep S Mehta

Corruption has now become a part of our DNA and is now a pandemic. The Lokpal Bills will now be debated before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice. A refreshing and welcome change is that their proceedings will be public…With the movement now on the Lokpal Bill that has already had a salutary impact on our economy and the governance system, we need to start a similar movement at the level of the states and our districts. Only then can we hope to arrest the pandemic of corruption. More...

Housing comes under heat
Financial Express, August 24, 2011

By Pradeep S Mehta

Even while the case where the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty on NSE for abuse of dominance was still under public debate, CCI has followed up with yet another crackdown on abuse of dominance, this time by India’s largest real estate company, DLF. DLF Limited was slapped with a record Rs 630 crore fine for abuse of dominance of an exploitative nature. DLF Limited was found guilty by CCI of imposing arbitrary, unfair and unreasonable conditions on apartment allottees of one of its numerous housing complexes, the Belaire situated in Gurgaon. More...

Competitive neutrality in public policy
Business Standard,  August 22, 2011

By Pradeep S Mehta

The Government of India has launched discussions on a draft national competition policy. Such a policy is needed to promote healthy competition in the Indian economy, so that growth is assured, inflation is controlled and more jobs are created. As it is, a number of competition distortions or impediments arise owing to our policy framework in different areas of economic governance. As part of work on a competition policy, the government has undertaken an exercise to unravel the huge range of competition distortions, which may be over 3,000 if we consider the number of policies, laws, regulations and praxis at the level of the Central, state and local governments. More...

An abuse of dominance
Financial Express, August 08, 2011

By Pradeep S Mehta

The order by the Competition Commission of India in the case of set top boxes has not endeared it to consumers, leading to the questioning of its capacity to deal with the rampant anti-competitive practices in the country. The issue is quite simple. DTH operators get set top boxes made to their own specifications, which are not usable on a competitor’s service. This means that interoperability is lacking, thus tying down a consumer to one provider. This, in turn, creates disincentives to shift to another provider. This also affects innovation adversely as such dominant practices dampen the desire to innovate by offering better quality, lower prices and so on, and thus be ahead of rivals. In competition jargon it is defined as an abuse of dominance as the supplier ties you down to their own products. More...

Uganda oil revenues can spur EAC growth
Business Daily Africa, August 04, 2011

By Fredrick Njehu

There has been a lot of debate surrounding the oil and petroleum sector in Uganda in since the discovery of this vital natural resource. First and foremost, it is important to appreciate the concept of international law which grants every country sovereign over its natural resources and in this case, Uganda has all the powers to extract, explore and sell any natural resource within its jurisdiction in accordance with its national laws.More...