Why India needs to give more power to its regulators
The way the pot can't call the kettle black, hardly any product seller or service provider can take the 'holier than thou' stance against others. The Supreme Court's rebuke to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) during the Patanjali misleading advertising case hearing, asking it to also put its house in order, given the complaints of unethical conduct by allopathic doctors, is an instance in point here.
Lack of effective regulations and their poor implementation is one of the major reasons for consumers' disempowerment over the years. Regular instances of product contamination, deficiency in services and involuntary product recalls or bans ordered by other countries point to the lack of regulatory deterrence among Indian businesses.
India is among the last of the semi-regulated countries, figuring among the top 10 economies in the world. And as it becomes prosperous, it will be compelled to overhaul its regulatory setup across different sectors.
While RBI and Sebi can be counted among proactive regulators, there are a slew of regulators across the critical areas of food, drugs, insurance and aviation, like FSSAI, FDA, CDSCO, Irda and DGCA that need to come up the curve with their regulatory scrutiny and clamp down.
A critical sector like healthcare, which has global investors, still needs a regulator. GoI is mulling setting up a regulator to address patient grievances, such as overcharging medical bills and deficiency in healthcare services, and to facilitate affordable health insurance coverage for citizens.
