Ease of Doing Business: Strengthening India’s Business Framework

#GS-3 #Economy #Infrastructure #Governance & Social Justice #Good Governance #Current Events #National

Context and Background

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry released a detailed backgrounder about the regulatory reforms that transformed India's business landscape.
These changes rely on digital governance, trust-based administration, and fewer rules to boost investor confidence and global competitiveness.

India changed its old system of heavy bureaucratic rules into a digital and supportive regulatory environment.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and central ministries manage this framework by using paperless entry and automated approvals.

The World Bank Doing Business Report showed India jumping by 79 positions from 142nd in 2014 to 63rd in 2019.
The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking noted India moving up from 43rd in 2021 to 41st in 2025.
The World Bank placed India in its top Group A category in the GovTech Maturity Index for 2020, 2022, and 2025.
The UN E-Government Survey gave India a very high score for online services and digital infrastructure.

The Startup India initiative grew recognized startups from 502 in 2016 to 2.23 lakh in 2026, creating 23.3 lakh jobs, with 48% having at least one woman director.
The SPICe+ Form combined 10 company registration steps into one online application across multiple states.
The MCA21 V3 portal processed 3.84 crore filings between 2021 and 2025, with 3.33 crore approved automatically.
Monthly Udyam registrations grew rapidly from 10,000 in 2020 to 8.58 lakh in 2026.
The DILRMP digitized 97.37% of maps and assigned ULPIN numbers to over 36 crore land parcels.
The NSWS system integrates approvals from 32 central departments and 34 states, granting over 8.29 lakh clearances.
The PARIVESH 2.0 portal reduced environmental clearance time to 64 days.
The GeM portal achieved total procurement of ₹18.4 lakh crore, with ₹5 lakh crore coming in FY26 alone, where MSEs took 68% of orders.
The PM GatiShakti initiative connects planning across 58 ministries using 3,199 GIS layers to review 352 projects worth ₹16.1 lakh crore.
India improved its rank in the Logistics Performance Index from 54th in 2014 to 38th in 2023 while tracking 95 million containers.
The CGTMSE provided ₹9.34 lakh crore in guarantees, and PMMY disbursed ₹40.07 lakh crore through 57 crore loans since 2015.
UPI transaction volume surged from 2 crore in FY17 to 24,162 crore in FY26, processing ₹314 lakh crore.
GST taxpayers increased from 60 lakh to 1.64 crore, while 188.27 crore E-Way Bills were generated in FY26.

Transparent digital checks replaced corrupt physical inspections to remove the old inspector raj.
The 2025 Labour Codes introduced web-based random inspections and turned field inspectors into helpful guides.
Changes to the Uniform Consent Guidelines made industrial operating permits valid until cancelled, removing the need for regular renewals.
Formal credit systems brought marginalized groups into the main economy, with women taking 59.81% of Mudra loan accounts.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) onboarded over 7.64 lakh sellers across 616+ cities to break large digital monopolies.

Digital portals work well at the center, but local implementation remains uneven across districts.
The National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) works in only 17 States and UTs, leaving half the country using older models.
Local tribunals still face delays in processing bankruptcy petitions, which slows down capital recovery.
Discrepancies between old paper records and high-resolution maps cause trouble during land verification.
Small artisans and rural businesses struggle to use advanced online bidding dashboards without outside help.

The government should enforce the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026 to make local benches accept or reject petitions within a 14-day window.
Authorities must expand the District Business Reform Action Plan (D-BRAP) to ensure single-window systems work properly at the grassroot level.
Implementing the 2026-27 Union Budget proposal to mandate the TReDS system for public enterprises will clear delayed invoices quickly.
The Jan Vishwas Act 2026 should be used to change minor rule breaks from criminal jail terms into simple money fines.
The Export Promotion Mission and its sub-schemes must give small exporters easy access to overseas warehouses and trade finance.

India's shift toward an easy business environment shows the strength of combining smart policies with digital public infrastructure.
By modernizing entry rules and expanding open commerce, the nation has built a strong foundation for sustainable entrepreneurship.