Newsletter May 2026
Published: May 01, 2026
Dear
Friends,
Greetings
from the Centre for Regulatory Governance
Crimes,
by the state, do not lead to punishment. It often leads to punishment inflicted
on other states. What I am reflecting on is the war in West Asia. The war was
brought upon the world by the USA, but the humongous price will be paid by
every range of oil importing countries.
While
this may seem obvious and certainly unfair, some results seem to be already
emerging that may change the calculus even for countries which trigger a war.
This applies not just to the US-Iran war but also to the Russia-Ukraine war.
This is a huge regulatory lesson here, as I will shortly explain.
The
Russian manufacturing apparatus has been reduced to a war machine, which will
be horrendous for that economy. The incessant production of armaments by a
denuded industrial production base will haunt Moscow long after the war. The
country cannot produce anything and will be importing those in massive bulk,
depending only on oil export revenues. Depending only on oil prices, when the
world is absolutely fed up with this source of energy, is a dangerous
gamble.
There
is more there. Russia has not only shredded its industrial base, but also
whatever remained of its regulatory structure to do so. Regulators in an
economy offer checks and balances, that helps citizens to engage in business.
As economies expand, the role of the regulators becomes more intense. They are
the safety net for businesses and citizens to recover once their enterprise
fails, and also promote expansion. Once the regulators disappear, those safety
nets are gone. No matter how much subsidy President Putin offers, this
confidence will not return.
Surprisingly,
the USA is also in the process of shredding the regulatory apparatus. The
difference in value between a US dollar note and the Russian Rouble is not
grounded in the size of their respective economies, but in the difference in
their regulatory standards. The difference in the size of the economy matters,
but not nearly enough. Throughout history, Russia has often gutted its
regulatory institutions. The USA hasnât. Or hadnât till now.
Whether
the process began when the USA started giving the global institutions a miss,
like the UNCLOS and the WTO, holding back on their funding, before Trump
finally withdrew, is something that economic historians will ponder. But the
environment is conducive to walk away from international groups; the UAE's
withdrawal from OPEC is the most striking of those.
I
would argue that these are also impacting the health of regulatory institutions
located within powerful economies like the USA. The insistent battle of the US
Presidency with the US Fed is not the only one. The dissolution of the US
National Science Board, which oversaw grants for science projects by the
National Science Foundation, is lesser known but has an equally ruinous impact.
All of these will impact the value of the US dollar negatively.
If you
need an example to substantiate this, "the answer is blowing in the
wind". Is it a surprise that the setting up of the Bharat
Maritime Insurance Pool in late April has drawn more positive
support among shippers than that sought to be offered by the US Development
Finance Corporation, announced about two months ago? The latter has not drawn
any financial interest; the Indian Maritime Pool is already in business. We
have had occasion to comment on these developments. There will be more such
developments soon, so watch out this space for more.
Meanwhile,
April ended on a hugely positive note for us at CRG. We are proud to
announce the release of our first Scoping Report on Regulatory Governance in
India - titled "Regulatory Governance: The Scope".
In an
event in Mumbai in April 24, the report was released by Ms Arundhati
Bhattacharya, President and CEO, Salesforce, South Asia, in the presence of our
Vice Chancellor, Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar.
In a
candid discussion during the "Fireside Chat" with our Vice Chancellor,
Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Ms Arundhati Bhattacharya mentioned that the main
issues faced by Regulators in today's setup was that businesses and individuals
look for short cuts in their operations while disregarding the rules set. This
results in Regulators responding with tighter controls. She also stated that
issues of over-regulations along with poor execution - resulting in delayed
justice, were quite common in Indian context. These sort of candid
interactions, where these important points come up, will help our team at CRG
to focus upon in coming months.
In his
Special address, Mr Ajay Seth, chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority of India underscored the importance of Regulators in
promoting competition, protecting consumers, and ensuring fair markets.
He warned that Regulators face challenges in balancing efficiency,
stability and distribution, and stressed that all Regulations should be based
on principles which are far sighted.
In the
Technical session on the theme "Making Regulators responsive to
citizens" which followed, Ms Archana Bhutani, Partner and India Regulatory
Leader, Deloitte, India, spoke about how "Operating Effectiveness"
was important for Regulators, while stressing upon the importance of
"adequate information" for implementation. Mr Krishnamoorthy Rao, MD
& CEO, Generali Central Insurance Company stressed that there has been a
push by both the Government and the Regulators to increase market penetration
for Insurance products, with simplified processes that have helped the
insurance companies introduce new products. Finally, there was the observation
by Mr Deep Mukherjee, Partner, Risk Management at the Boston Consulting Group
emphasised that the main focus of Regulators should be to track and manage for
"vulnerabilities" and the need to be precise about what they are
"observing".
The details of the event and the Scoping report along with all reports
on the Regulatory front can be obtained from our website: https://crg.jgu.edu.in/. The event also
received a wide Press coverage. The links for some of them are given
below:
Indian Express
Business Standard
Economic Times
Indian Express
PTI News
The Wire
We
shall be most keen to listen in from you, as we seek to expand our role.
Meanwhile, here is a snapshot of other major Regulatory news:
⢠MEITY: The Draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and
Digital Media Ethics Code) Second Amendment Rules, 2026 (âDraft Amendmentsâ), released by the Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology (MeitY) on March 30, 2026, are meant to strengthen
compliance and increase the effectiveness of regulatory oversight of content
regulation mechanisms.
Apart
from the Regulatory space, the wave of reforms persisted in other sectors also.
Notably among them were:
⢠Lok Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill. This has been done to address
procedural delays and streamlining the resolution process for companies and
individuals.
⢠Reforms were also noted in urban
property governance in Maharashtra through Vertical Property Card (VPC).
VPC is creating a land record entry that eases title and makes lending, buying
and selling easier by saving people from the fragmented documentation under the
Maharashtra Land Record Act.
⢠The Ministry of Corporate Affairs
(MCA) is bringing in reforms in the Corporate filing system, by moving from old
paper-based system to a modern digital platform called MCA21 Version 3 (V3). The main vision remains
India's goal of becoming a $30 trillion economy by 2047 ('Viksit Bharat @2047'
vision).
My
Thanks and Regards,
Subhomoy
Bhattacharjee
