One of the important functions of the government is to deploy public assets for public gain. However, selling these assets or renting them has landed many a government in a soup. Be it the mill-land fiasco in Mumbai, spectrum auctions for 2G or coal block allotment, governments seem to fumble at every step. And this is not the only problem with deployment of public assets. Let us look at problems and solutions to selling or deploying public assets in the interest of public.