In an interview to Mint in 2007, de Soto estimated this to be worth about $10 trillion the world over. The trick is, like he pointed out, to incentivize people in the informal economy to accept the new terms of guaranteed titling.

At the moment, the assets in the informal economy are protected through informal means—like the use of the mafia. A property owner has to be convinced that a legitimate title guarantees them far greater returns than what is available in the informal economy—and this inevitably begins with security of tenure at their existing domicile.

Under Rajasthan’s new titling law, the granting of legitimate rights to a property owner, which at present can be disputed, dramatically improves their ability to trade these rights legally. This is, however, based on people trusting the government’s ability to deliver on the promise of a guaranteed title. At the moment, the trust quotient between the people and governments in general is at an all-time low and it will therefore require enormous political heavy lifting.

This fundamental change in property rights is what is at the core of titling legislation passed by the Rajasthan government. To be sure, it has been in the official works for some time now. Raje moved on it in her last stint at the helm, but couldn’t make headway; simultaneously, the Union urban development ministry at the time came up with a set of guidelines for states desiring to make this transition to pursue through a titling policy. Presume this is a new beginning.

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