Institutional design and contracting techniques are increasingly important as policy priorities shift to advocate increasing reliance on public-private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver India’s urban infrastructure and services. PPPs are no panacea for public sector failure or financing constraints; they can often have equal or greater fiscal implications and they require a range of new skills in designing and governing partnerships. The private sector does often offer greater efficiency, faster deployment of new technologies, innovative management, and other contributions that complement public sector practices in infrastructure and service delivery, but the PPP terms must motivate both partners to deploy these capacities.

How can policy, regulation, and careful drafting of contracts create incentives for private partners towards social goals? This case focuses on ways in which the policy and regulatory environment have historically and iteratively shaped successive implementations of a PPP in solid waste management in Chennai over the last 15 years. It focuses on the contract in particular as a focal point for governance of the PPPs. The case seeks to reiterate the public responsibilities involved in public-private-partnerships and to equip learners to think systematically and creatively about how these may be met in the Indian governance context. It could also be an entry point for a longer discussion about urban governance reforms.

About the Case Authors
Dr. Jessica Seddon is the Founder and Managing Director of Okapi. Her research and consulting focus on the interaction of institutions with the information ecology and their joint effect on group behavior. She has worked in development social science and institutional design for a over a decade and a half, with employers and clients ranging from the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank Research departments to a start-up university in Bangalore and national government committees in India. Dr. Seddon earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and her B.A. from Harvard University.

Dr. Ashwin Mahalingam joined the faculty in the Building Technology and Construction Management division of the Civil engineering department at IIT-Madras in 2006. He received his B.Tech in Civil engineering from IIT-Madras and then proceeded to Stanford University for a Masters in Construction Engineering and Management. Ashwin then helped start up an internet based company in the USA called All Star Fleet, aimed at providing asset management services for construction companies. Following this he returned to Stanford University to pursue a Ph.D. in the area of Infrastructure Project Management. Ashwin’s current research interests are in the areas of Public Private Partnerships, visualization and simulation of planning processes, and sustainable development; he also does some work in the areas of cross-cultural issues and social entrepreneurship.