Yes, you can auction water

Even before the Supreme Court judgment cancelling 122 of the licences issued by jailed ex-telecom minister A Raja (35 dual technology licences have not been cancelled so far), many like telecom minister Kapil Sibal argued that auctions hiked customer tariffs and that, while Raja may be guilty of tweaking norms to ensure favoured firms got the licence, the policy of keeping entry fees low was the correct one as it kept customer welfare in mind. After the SC judgment, a lot more worthies are making the same point, at the most conceding that while auctions may still be okay in telecom where companies are making huge profits (tell that to Bharti Airtel’s investors!), it cannot work in all cases.

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