THE ROAD TO SCAM-FREE RESOURCE ALLOCATION

India has been plagued by many scams over recent years involving allocation of national resources. Whether it is the allocation of minerals, as in Coalgate, of telecom spectrum or of land, as in the Adarsh scandal, each of these scams has hurt industry, robbed the people and stalled India’s march towards becoming a super power. There may be many more in the making unless the government settles on a process of auctions and the right method of doing so. TOI put a lot of thought and consulted experts to analyse various methods of auctions of natural resources. There is widespread agreement that long term industry profitability, consumer good and efficient use of resources are far more important objectives than revenue maximization when allocating national resources. There is also a consensus that some methods should be banned outright as they are anachronistic in modern times and are tailor made for corruption because they lack transparency. So what’s the magic solution?                                                             
                                                                                                                   Best way to Avoid Scam