New Delhi, Dec. 8 -- What do you call someone who comes down like a tonne of bricks on ambitious youngsters with career aspirations but crumbles like a cookie in the face of a market-leading company flexing its dominance?

The rest of the world terms them bullies. In India, we call them regulators.

If this strikes you as Macaulay-esque prejudice against Indian institutions, compare the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA's) capitulation in the face of IndiGo's blackmail with the Commission on Air Quality Management's (CAQM's) imminent clampdown on young men and women looking to earn living by delivering goods and services for e-commerce giants using bikes bought with borrowed money.

Come January, even as they struggle to keep ...