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The Indian corporate conglomerate, Tata, says it is ready to provide water services in this vast country and also prove that privatisation does not have to involve expensive foreign consultants and providers.
The Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (JUSCO), a Tata subsidiary based in this s 104-year-old steel town in eastern India, is India’s only private municipal operator supplying utility services, including drinking-water, to a population of 700,000 people that extends beyond the 64 sq.km compound of the Tata Iron and Steel Company.
Water supply services fall under government control by Indian law, but facing donor pressure in the last two decades for reform in various sectors, the Indian government brought forward a radical water policy in 2002 that allows private sector participation.
Various state governments are now eager to garner both international loans and bring in foreign consultants and technical firms to undertake a ...