New Delhi, Dec. 11 -- Under India's new economic order, consumption has become a dependency, mediated-beyond choice-by ownership of infrastructure. Last week, at Mumbai airport, I saw IndiGo's embattled yet intact front-line. Yet, real authority was up in some cloud that no individual seemed able to override.

A generation ago, you were courted by multiple companies vying for your money. Today, you sit within an ecosystem where opting out is costly, inconvenient and often practically impossible. Be it insurance renewals, broadband service packs or credit card rewards, you are trapped. Legalese aside, the choices on offer are hardly volitional. It happens when scale, technology and capital converge faster than regulation.

In India, the so...