TAINTED CAPITALISM

This is a structural imbalance. When one company becomes too big to regulate, the public becomes hostage

- Ajit Ranade

When IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights this December— stranding lakhs of passengers, destroying travel plans, and exposing India’s vulnerability to a quasi-monopoly airline—it was tempting to blame it all on one company’s “rogue behaviour.” But scratching the surface reveals a deeper malaise: a chronic weakening of India’s regulatory institutions, and a form of tainted capitalism where dominant private players face little real accountability. ‘The crisis was not an aberration; it was inevitable.

Indian regulators are meant to be quasi-judicial bodies—independent, evidence-driven, and powerful enough to discipline the biggest corporations. In principle, they play a role analogous to courts: interpreting rules, enforcing compliance, and protecting public interest. In practice, most regulators resemble departments inside ministries, staffed by junior officers who simply cannot stand up to billion-dollar incumbents.

Contrast this with the US, where even a junior federal judge could issue adverse rulings against the sitting President against his whimsical tariffs. In India, the median regulatory staffer is neither empowered nor insulated. They are expected to regulate conglomerates whose annual profits exceed the regulator’s entire budget— and whose influence networks reach deep within the government. The result is predictable: regulatory hesitation, delayed enforcement, and a culture of looking away until a crisis becomes impossible to ignore.