Regulatory Globalisation as a Contested Phenomenon – Case of Electricity Sector Reform in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

In 1993, India adopted the neoliberal World Bank model for the electricity sector, which endeavoured to privatise the state owned sector. The move to privatise was prompted by sectoral losses owing to politicisation of provision and inefficient management of the state owned utility. This transition from a ‘welfare state’ to a ‘regulatory state’ was sought to be achieved through legislative enactment. By tracing the province of Andhra Pradesh’s implementation of the reform legislation, the paper evolves an alternate narrative of the reform process, as opposed the World Bank’s narrative of legislative enactment signalling the reception of its regulatory model. It argues that focussing on resistance to reform and actual ‘reception’ as opposed to formal enactment will counter the assumption of triumph of the neo-liberal worldview of the role of the state in economic activity.