This book epitomizes the multidisciplinary expertise (linking economics, management, financial and cost accounting, and engineering) that electricity regulatory commissions must harness to effectively regulate the sector, despite high government ownership, strong utility–government linkages, inefficiencies, and weak commercial attitudes.
Governing power’ is a pioneering attempt to examine the experience with independent regulation of electricity in India to assess its efficacy as an alternative form of governance. It compares the electricity experience with that of independent regulation in the other countries, independent regulatory bodies in India, and old-style regulation by government departments. It evaluates the Indian model in context of its replication over other sectors of the economy. S L Rao's experience of having operationalized the concept in India, as the first Chairman of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, provides valuable insights.
