Public Seminar
Wednesday 7th December 2011, 3.30pm to 5pm, Room EAS.E168, East Building, LSE
Speaker: Subodh Wagle
Chair: Ruth Kattumuri
Discussant: Robert Baldwin
In the post-liberalization era, Independent Regulatory Agencies (or IRAs) are being propagated in many developing countries. This presentation focuses on IRAs in the water sector at the state level in India. The presentation will begin with the background to reforms in the water sector and explanations for the rationale and role of IRAs. Further, some major critiques and concerns over the IRAs in the water sector will be reviewed. The next segment will focus on the current ongoing initiative to adapt the IRA model to state water sector in India. This is aimed at arriving at the regulatory model that is fitting to the physical, political, social, and institutional realities of the country, and through a truly deliberative process. In the conclusion, an attempt will be made to assess the charge that the IRAs have been essentially used as a universal institutional fix. In the concluding segment, this proposition will be dwelled upon.
Professor Subodh Wagle has B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Energy and Environment Policy. He teaches at Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. Since 1995, he has been a Trustee and a member of the Core Team of PRAYAS, a public-interest organization (www.prayaspune.org). He has been involved in research, teaching, training, advocacy, and interventions in the field of regulation, especially in the electricity and water sectors, for the last fifteen years. Currently, he is the Chairperson of the Working Group on Model Bill for State Water Regulatory System formed by the Planning Commission of India. At present, he is based at Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics as a Visiting Fellow.
Dr Ruth Kattumuri| is Co-Director of the LSE Asia Research Centre.
Professor Robert Baldwin is in the Department of Law, LSE.
Additional Information
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries email arc@lse.ac.uk| or call 020 7955 7615.