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India Strengthens Ease of Doing Business Ahead of B-Ready Assessment
ECONOMY & POLICY

India Strengthens Ease of Doing Business Ahead of B-Ready Assessment

India has strengthened its ease of doing business performance, improving by 79 ranks in international rankings over the last five years and reaching rank 63 in the Doing Business Report of 2019. After the discontinuation of the Doing Business Report, the World Bank introduced the B-Ready Assessment in 2024 to evaluate more than 180 countries over three years across 10 topics that span the business lifecycle. India is scheduled to feature in the third B-Ready report, which is expected in 2026 and serves as an external benchmark for ongoing reforms.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade launched the Business Reforms Action Plan in 2014 to streamline regulations, reduce compliance burdens and accelerate digital delivery of services for businesses. The programme has emphasised single window systems, simplified building permissions, improved inspection procedures and the digitisation of registrations and renewals to attract domestic and foreign investment. Seven editions of the action plan have been completed and the seventh edition is in progress, with over 9,700 reforms implemented across States and Union Territories.

Under the Reducing Compliance Burden initiative, launched in 2020, Central ministries and States/UTs undertook self identification exercises that have led to the reduction of over 47,000 compliances in the last five years. Of these, 16,109 compliances were simplified, 22,287 were digitised, 4,623 were decriminalised and 4,270 were eliminated as redundant. The focused RCB+ exercise reviewed 6,262 identified compliances across 23 Acts and achieved a reduction of 4,846 items to harmonise inter-state and intra-regulatory requirements.

The Jan Vishwas Amendment Act of 2023 decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 Acts administered by 19 ministries and departments, using approaches that include removal of imprisonment, conversion of penalties and compounding of offences where appropriate. Building on that, the Jan Vishwas Amendments Bill of 2025 was approved by the Union Cabinet on 12 August 2025 and has been referred to a select committee for further examination. The proposed common amendment seeks changes across 16 Central Acts with a total of 355 provisions under consideration, including 288 proposals for decriminalisation and 67 amendments to facilitate ease of living.

DPIIT has conducted analytical mapping of more than 42,000 reduced compliances across over 670 unique Acts to identify overlaps and guide harmonisation, and it has identified 23 Acts for concerted action under RCB+. Digital integration has extended to land banks and Geographic Information Systems for industrial parks linked to the India Industrial Land Bank to provide investor relevant information. The National Single Window System has been operationalised and integrated with 32 Central ministries and 33 States and Union Territories, giving access to more than 300 central approvals and more than 3,000 state approvals alongside an investor dashboard and grievance helpline to track and resolve cases. The Minister of State for Commerce and Industry informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that these measures are intended to strengthen transparency, reduce turnaround time and enhance investor confidence.

India has strengthened its ease of doing business performance, improving by 79 ranks in international rankings over the last five years and reaching rank 63 in the Doing Business Report of 2019. After the discontinuation of the Doing Business Report, the World Bank introduced the B-Ready Assessment in 2024 to evaluate more than 180 countries over three years across 10 topics that span the business lifecycle. India is scheduled to feature in the third B-Ready report, which is expected in 2026 and serves as an external benchmark for ongoing reforms. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade launched the Business Reforms Action Plan in 2014 to streamline regulations, reduce compliance burdens and accelerate digital delivery of services for businesses. The programme has emphasised single window systems, simplified building permissions, improved inspection procedures and the digitisation of registrations and renewals to attract domestic and foreign investment. Seven editions of the action plan have been completed and the seventh edition is in progress, with over 9,700 reforms implemented across States and Union Territories. Under the Reducing Compliance Burden initiative, launched in 2020, Central ministries and States/UTs undertook self identification exercises that have led to the reduction of over 47,000 compliances in the last five years. Of these, 16,109 compliances were simplified, 22,287 were digitised, 4,623 were decriminalised and 4,270 were eliminated as redundant. The focused RCB+ exercise reviewed 6,262 identified compliances across 23 Acts and achieved a reduction of 4,846 items to harmonise inter-state and intra-regulatory requirements. The Jan Vishwas Amendment Act of 2023 decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 Acts administered by 19 ministries and departments, using approaches that include removal of imprisonment, conversion of penalties and compounding of offences where appropriate. Building on that, the Jan Vishwas Amendments Bill of 2025 was approved by the Union Cabinet on 12 August 2025 and has been referred to a select committee for further examination. The proposed common amendment seeks changes across 16 Central Acts with a total of 355 provisions under consideration, including 288 proposals for decriminalisation and 67 amendments to facilitate ease of living. DPIIT has conducted analytical mapping of more than 42,000 reduced compliances across over 670 unique Acts to identify overlaps and guide harmonisation, and it has identified 23 Acts for concerted action under RCB+. Digital integration has extended to land banks and Geographic Information Systems for industrial parks linked to the India Industrial Land Bank to provide investor relevant information. The National Single Window System has been operationalised and integrated with 32 Central ministries and 33 States and Union Territories, giving access to more than 300 central approvals and more than 3,000 state approvals alongside an investor dashboard and grievance helpline to track and resolve cases. The Minister of State for Commerce and Industry informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that these measures are intended to strengthen transparency, reduce turnaround time and enhance investor confidence.

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