Shedding Light on India’s Rulemaking

In today’s Business Standard, I have this piece which argues the current system for creating rules and regulations in India is dysfunctional – leading to inefficiency and corruption, as well as potentially undermining civil liberties. To help remedy this problem it proposes making the rulemaking process more transparent, encouraging public participation, and creating an independent auditing body to run cost-benefit analysis on proposed rules. Rulemaking affects almost every facet of Indian public policy, and yet receives relatively little sustained attention from the press or the Indian academy. India does seem to be undergoing an administrative law revolution (from the right to information act to the lok pal bill), systematically reconfiguring the relationship between citizens and the state. Rulemaking should not be overlooked.