{"id":66124,"date":"2026-02-06T18:25:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=66124"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:57:00","slug":"ease-of-doing-business-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/06-02-2026\/ease-of-doing-business-india","title":{"rendered":"Ease of Doing Business: India\u2019s Ongoing Regulatory Transformation\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus:GS3\/Economy&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Union Budget 2026-27 reinforces Ease of Doing Business as pillar of growth and development, while focusing on digitisation, tax certainty, investor access and litigation reduction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ease of Doing Business (EoDB<\/strong><strong>)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It\u00a0 has emerged as a cornerstone of India\u2019s economic reform agenda and is reaffirmed as a key pillar of growth and development.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Union Budget 2026-27 focuses on reforms aimed at digital trade facilitation, tax certainty, reduction in compliance and litigation, trust-based customs systems, and an investment-friendly tax regime.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These measures build on sustained regulatory and institutional reforms undertaken over the past decade to simplify business procedures, enhance transparency, and reduce compliance burdens, thereby strengthening investor confidence across sectors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Progress&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>During 2014\u201325, India attracted USD 748.38 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), a 143% increase over the previous 11-year period.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The number of active registered companies increased from 1.55 lakh in 2020\u201321 to 1.98 lakh in 2025\u201326 , indicating a growth of ~27% in 5 years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Continued Ease of Doing Business reforms (EoDB), aligned with the Viksit Bharat @2047 vision, will remain vital for strengthening global value chain linkages and driving industry-led growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Focus of Budget&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Budget reinforces India\u2019s EoDB agenda through measures aimed at enhancing tax certainty, reducing compliance burden, and promoting trust-based governance.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Key reforms include rationalisation of MAT, simplification of dispute resolution, and decriminalisation of minor procedural offences.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Budget also advances customs and logistics reforms through digital integration and risk-based clearances to lower transaction costs and improve business efficiency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Importance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A business-friendly environment is vital for economic growth, as it attracts foreign direct investment, encourages entrepreneurship, and strengthens India\u2019s role as a global manufacturing hub.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also promotes job creation by enabling startups and MSMEs to expand more easily.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It enhances global competitiveness by improving international rankings and supporting initiatives such as Make in India and Digital India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Implementation gaps persist in land acquisition, contract enforcement, and judicial processes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Regulatory complexity due to overlapping state and departmental rules creates uncertainty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Infrastructure bottlenecks in logistics, power, and urban services increase business costs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Taxation and compliance burdens, including frequent rule changes, affect investor confidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Various steps of Government&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The government has introduced wide-ranging trade, investment, tax, and regulatory reforms to improve ease of doing business and attract global investment.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Key trade facilitation measures include a single digital window for cargo clearance, immediate customs clearance for low-risk goods, rollout of a <strong>Customs Integrated System (CIS)<\/strong>, and expanded use of<strong> AI-based non-intrusive scanning <\/strong>at ports. Investment reforms allow Persons Resident Outside India (PROIs) to invest more in listed Indian companies and raise overall investment limits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT)<\/strong> is rationalised through exemptions for non-residents, reduced rates, final tax treatment, capital-gains-based taxation of buybacks, and flexible MAT credit usage.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Penalty and prosecution regimes<\/strong> are simplified through integrated assessment, reduced pre-deposit requirements, expanded immunity provisions, decriminalisation of minor offences, graded prosecutions, and retrospective immunity for small foreign asset holdings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Broader reforms focus on shifting from clearance to compliance, supported by large-scale decriminalisation under the<strong> Jan Vishwas Acts<\/strong>, amendments to environmental and forest laws<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>National Single Window System (NSWS)<\/strong> has emerged as a major digital reform, integrating approvals from central and state governments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Government has implemented the<strong> Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP)<\/strong> to improve transparency, simplify regulations, and enhance service delivery across States and Union Territories.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other regulatory measures include the RBI\u2019s consolidation of over 9,000 circulars into 238 Master Directions, significantly reducing compliance burden.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act<\/strong>, 2025 allows <strong>100% FDI in insurance, <\/strong>simplifies registration for intermediaries, eases share transfer norms, lowers capital requirements for foreign reinsurers, and improves insurance penetration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Labour reforms, through consolidation of 29 laws <\/strong>into four Labour Codes, have simplified compliance, reduced approval timelines, increased operational flexibility, digitised registrations and returns, decriminalised minor offences, and raised thresholds for layoffs and closures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>GST 2.0 reforms introduced in September 2025<\/strong> simplified tax slabs, reduced rates, corrected inverted duty structures, lowered compliance costs, and expanded the tax base to over 1.5 crore registered taxpayers, supporting formalisation and entrepreneurship.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India\u2019s Ease of Doing Business framework continues to evolve through a combination of regulatory simplification, digitalisation, and trust-based governance.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Union Budget 2026-27 proposals, alongside ongoing reforms across taxation, labour, finance, and regulation, signal a sustained commitment to reducing compliance burden and improving predictability for businesses. Strong trends in investment inflows, enterprise growth, and formalisation reflect the broader reform momentum built over the past decade.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Together, these initiatives strengthen India\u2019s competitiveness and promote growth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source :<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressNoteDetails.aspx?id=157227&amp;NoteId=157227&amp;ModuleId=3&amp;reg=3&amp;lang=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> In Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Union Budget 2026-27 reinforces Ease of Doing Business as pillar of growth and development, while focusing on digitisation, tax certainty, investor access and litigation reduction. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> It\u00a0 has emerged as a cornerstone of India\u2019s economic reform agenda and is reaffirmed as a key pillar of growth and development.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The Union Budget 2026-27 focuses on reforms aimed at digital trade facilitation, tax certainty, reduction in compliance and litigation, trust-based customs systems, and an investment-friendly tax regime.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/06-02-2026\/ease-of-doing-business-india \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66127,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66124\/revisions\/66127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}