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Natural gas in India: Liberalisation and policy / Anil K. Jain. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, January 2012. 45 £http://www.oxfordenergy.org/shop/natural-gas-in-india-liberalisation-and-policy/A classic dilemma in an economy in transition from planning and price control to freer markets is how to gain greater flexibility and efficiency without sacrificing social objectives. Anil Jain, an experienced policy maker, meticulously analyses how, in today's rapidly developing Indian economy, this problem has been a central one for the small but important and rapidly growing natural gas industry. In the past, gas, a major input for the fertilisers needed by poor farmers, has been heavily subsidised. Now, as prices are being set loose, the search is on for other, perhaps more targeted, forms of subsidisation. Jain assesses whether future policies in the gas industry can achieve the twin objectives of efficiency and equity in a more complex economic setting in which, on paper at least, the government has less power to intervene. Resolving such questions, in this and other industries, may be an important political determinant of the ability of the economy to continue its present growth path. (© OIES)