Corruption and exploitation of natural resources have become conjoined twins in our country. So much so that on Sunday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, at the party's plenary session aimed at preparing the party for the next elections, flagged it as a key issue.
One of the key points in her fivepoint anti-corruption programme which she revealed this week is to introduce a system of 'open competition' in the exploitation of natural resources.
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Is open market competition the answer? It may help in eliminating some of the margin - which goes towards funding the payoffs - currently in the system, but will it prove a panacea for the other ills which cloud the issue of who should benefit, and to what extent, from exploiting natural resources? One doubts whether open competition alone would suffice to plug the many defects and gaps in our existing, as well as proposed policies regarding the exploitation of natural resources.
Legislation
The National Mineral Policy, announced more than three years ago and which is supposed to provide the framework for exploiting India's vast mineral wealth while at the same time safeguarding strategic and long term national interests, is
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