Reforming India’s land market to accelerate industrial and infrastructure development

Overview

Land acquisition has become the most important brake on India’s industrial and infrastructure development. Distorted land markets and the concentration of authority over land purchases in the hands of government officials have led companies to rely on the state’s "eminent domain" powers to aggregate land for private projects at artificially low prices. The poor bargaining power of most land sellers and the opportunities for “regulatory arbitrage” allow corporations to subsequently make...