The fight for India’s 1.4 billion consumers is a fixed match

Twenty-five years ago, when as many Indians flew annually as they do in a month now, two state-owned airlines controlled half of the domestic aviation market. This March, 57 per cent of the 13 million tickets that got sold were booked with just one private airline.

India’s embrace of capitalism may have brought the country a higher rate of economic growth than in its pre-1990s socialist past, but sectors regulated by the state have largely failed to usher in the muscular competition that gives consumers more choices, better services and lower prices.