Newsletter November 2026

Dear Friends,

The Centre for Regulatory Governance (CRG) at the Jindal Global Law School in O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU).

We recently played host to a conversation between the chief of India’s largest electricity generation company, NTPC and a top official from India’s Finance Ministry. Is India generating electricity and pricing it competitively? A summary of that conversation between Mr Gurdeep Singh and Mr Sanjay Prasad is here.

We could not have imagined how prescient the topic would be when just days later, the Haryana government walked back on a model to offer electricity through competition, delivered to the consumers’ meter. The issue was simple. The Electricity Act, 2003 had offered consumers the right to choose their electricity suppliers just as they choose their telecom service provider. States and even the central government have worked for 24 years to block this reform. Results, while India has 559 GW of installed capacity and the total demand has never exceeded 280 GW, there are no consumers who pay a fair price for the power they consume even if they wish to.

That promise was made effective when the Haryana State Electricity Regulatory Commission ordered, in October, the entry of Eleven Power Producer Limited as a competitor to the sole power supplier for Southern Haryana, the government-run Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam Ltd. The cities covered by the new order were Gurugram and Nuh. The Haryana government has issued a policy directive, a rarely used powerful tool to block the order. 

There was certainly a question mark over why the new entrant would wish to take on electricity distribution, unless it had got an approval to use the existing supply lines to send its own electrons to homes in these two towns. Otherwise, as Somit Dasgupta, former Member, (Economic and Commercial) at the Central Electricity Authority points out in this piece, “To recover this investment, the new licensee will have to levy a heavy fixed cost which may lead to a tariff higher than what the consumers are already paying. Then why should consumers move away from the existing licensee unless, of course, the new licensee can manage to get power so cheap that savings in energy cost will outweigh the high fixed cost. This can perhaps be possible if the new licensee can tie up solar power of the required magnitude. However, no distribution utility can run only on renewable power”. There is a bill in Parliament that would allow the challenger the option of using the existing trunk infrastructure, but that is prospective.  Clearly, questions! 

Before these could be settled, however, the Haryana government has ensured a first-class legal battle to be waged for years at various forums.

The Haryana case shows how states are getting into regulatory tangles with these authorities. As the Business Standard reported, the Maharashtra government has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the constitutional validity of certain rules and orders issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, FSSAI. The report notes “The state has accused the central regulator of creating a parallel enforcement system and encroaching on the powers of state food safety authorities”.

The reasons are obvious. Food, electricity, health, et al are domains where the states feel the need to keep a sharp eye. Data and education could be the next. As regulators begin interceding in these sectors, the possibility of a rift between elected state governments and citizens has risen. 

How should the citizens respond? Evidently, regulators issue orders keeping in view the broader interests of all citizens. This will naturally bring several interest groups into a clash with these aims. These groups find the state a useful ally in the battle. In Haryana for instance, Gurugram residents would have found the competition a great Diwali gift, the employees of the incumbent power distribution company didn’t think so. In Maharashtra the state is contesting segments of the FSSAI Act of 2006. The law had authorised the FSSAI to lay down science-based standards for food products and regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import. The central point of the dispute is does the state or does the centre have the right to inspect food safety. Consumers of sweets or other food stuff are not bothered who does the work, they would only insist it be done effectively. The state petitions in both cases argue on behalf of the citizens but are meant to preserve the turfs of influential segments.

These will become the new fields for regulators to tread carefully. As the Centre cedes more space to the regulators who, by definition, are technically qualified to decide, the states will often not agree.

Some even larger issues will be covered by CRG later this month when Mr David W. Russell, CEO of Russell Communications, Tokyo speaks with Dr Shashi Tharoor, MP and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, Mr Amitabh Kant, former IAS and former CEO of Niti Aayog and Prof (Dr) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, JGU. The theme is What do nations need to do long-term to survive? “The Long Game” promises to be a fascinating conversation where we sincerely hope you will join us.  

Meanwhile, there are a whole lot of other issues that we covered in our monthly round-ups. I invite you to read or preserve them as ready reckoners for your work. 

With Regards

Subhomoy Bhattacharjee

Meanwhile, major reforms persisted in the Indian Regulatory space. October, 2026 witnessed major upheaval in the stock market – especially, as stocks of Banks, NBFCs and Insurance distribution Companies reacted negatively to the draft rules initiated by IRDAI. Power sector too was in the limelight that saw draft rules by the CERC and concerns over India’s Data Centre boom sparking grid stability concerns. Focus shifted to the Indian pharmaceutical sector on concerns over overcharging of medicines in India, with another discussion on the harm that could be caused by India’s over-dependency in few critical sectors on the international markets.

IRDAI: Since Dec 2025 when the 100% FDI Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, the Insurance Regulatory Institution has not looked back at reforms. The recent Draft Bill caused a major shock to the Banks, NBFCs and the Insurance distribution Companies in particular, though the Institution says it will benefit the customers by reducing cost – resulting in higher penetration of Insurance products. The panel discussion at the CRG Monday Regulatory Table featuring experts, faculty and students deliberated on the implications of this draft bill, debating whether the proposed reforms will genuinely expand coverage and lower consumer costs or inadvertently disrupt the financial and distribution ecosystem. 

CERC: The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) Draft Regulations 2026, too brought about crucial reforms to accelerate trial operations and commercial commissioning for renewable energy (RE) and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

CEA: The rapid growth of Data Centres has forced the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India to initiate a study to assess the rapid growth of data centers and their impact on power grid stability. The committee will analyze data center electricity load patterns and examine whether separate regulatory classifications or guidelines are necessary to manage their rising energy demand.

CCI:  In a commentary written by our university student, it analyzes how unfair platform fees, coercive data sharing, and self-preferencing by dominant digital gatekeepers threaten the survival of Indian start-ups. It also suggests ways as to how the Competition Commission of India (CCI) can regulate dominant digital platforms (like Apple, WhatsApp, and Google).

The detailed reports and discussions by our CRG panelists analyzing the reports are captured in our website: https://crg.jgu.edu.in/.