India’s Big Regulatory Reset: What It Means Ahead Of The World Bank’s 2026 B-READY Test

Corporate Update

India’s Big Regulatory Reset: What It Means Ahead Of The World Bank’s 2026 B-READY Test

What does it actually take to make it easier to start a factory, move goods across states, hire workers, get environmental clearances, resolve disputes and scale a business without drowning in paperwork?

For India, the answer over the past decade has been simple but ambitious: rewrite the rulebook.

Between 2014 and 2019, India climbed 79 places in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, reaching 63rd position. Then the rankings were discontinued. But the reform momentum did not slow. Instead, it shifted gears.

In 2024, the World Bank introduced a new framework - Business Ready (B-READY) — a far more granular assessment covering 10 pillars across the entire business lifecycle: entry, location, utilities, labour, finance, trade, taxation, dispute resolution, competition and insolvency. India will be assessed in the third B-READY report due in 2026.

This time, the evaluation is broader. And India has been preparing.

Reform as competition: States join the race

The reform push has not been limited to New Delhi. It has played out across India’s states through the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP), launched in 2014 by DPIIT.

Seven editions later, more than 9,700 reforms have been implemented across States and Union Territories.

The changes are not cosmetic. They include:

• Single-window clearance systems

• Simplified building and environmental approvals

• Digitised registrations and renewals

• Risk-based inspection systems

• Faster utility connections

• GIS-based industrial land banks integrated with the India Industrial Land Bank

BRAP rankings have turned regulatory reform into competitive federalism. States are classified as Top Achievers, Achievers, Fast Movers or Aspirers based on implementation levels.

In BRAP 2024 (including compliance burden reforms), Fast Movers in Category Y include Odisha, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Assam, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Karnataka. Category X includes northeastern states (excluding Assam) and certain UTs.

The message: reform is no longer concentrated in a few industrial powerhouses. It is spreading geographically.

The compliance clean-up: 47,000 rules reduced

If BRAP focused on systems, the Regulatory Compliance Burden (RCB) initiative tackled volume.

Since 2020, over 47,000 compliances have been reduced across ministries and states.

The breakdown is significant:

• 16,109 simplified

• 22,287 digitised

• 4,623 decriminalised

• 4,270 eliminated entirely

Under RCB+, 4,846 out of 6,262 compliances across 23 commonly implemented Acts have been rationalised to reduce overlap across states.

DPIIT also mapped more than 42,000 reduced compliances across over 670 Acts to identify duplication and harmonise frameworks nationwide.

For businesses, this means fewer repetitive filings, fewer overlapping approvals and lower transaction friction — especially for firms operating in multiple states.

Decriminalisation: Changing the tone of regulation

One of the most consequential shifts has been philosophical.

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 Acts administered by 19 Ministries. Imprisonment clauses for minor procedural lapses were removed, and several offences were converted into civil penalties with compounding options.

The reform is now expanding.

The Jan Vishwas (Amendments of Provisions) Bill, 2025, currently under review, proposes amendment of 355 provisions across 16 Central Acts administered by 10 Ministries. Of these, 288 provisions are proposed for decriminalisation to strengthen ease of doing business, and 67 aim to improve ease of living.

The objective is clear: shift from punitive oversight to trust-based regulation, without diluting accountability.

One portal, thousands of approvals

Parallel to legal reforms, digital integration has accelerated.

The National Single Window System (NSWS) now integrates:

• 32 Central Ministries/Departments

• 33 States/UTs

• 300+ Central approvals

• 3,000+ State approvals

Through an Investor Dashboard, businesses can track application status in real time. A helpline and daily grievance mechanism support users.

Instead of navigating fragmented departmental interfaces, firms can move through a unified digital gateway.

What 2026 will test

The upcoming B-READY assessment in 2026 will evaluate how well these reforms function across the full business lifecycle — not just on paper, but in practice.

It will measure:

• How easy it is to start operations

• How predictable tax and labour systems are

• How efficiently trade procedures work

• How disputes and insolvency cases are handled

• How competitive markets remain

In other words, it will test whether India’s regulatory reset has moved from reform announcements to institutional outcomes.

A structural shift, not a ranking exercise

What stands out is scale.

More than 9,700 state-level reforms.

Over 47,000 compliances reduced.

Hundreds of legal provisions decriminalised.

Thousands of approvals integrated digitally.

Taken together, these are not incremental tweaks. They represent a systemic attempt to redesign the interface between government and enterprise.

As India approaches the 2026 B-READY evaluation, the real question is no longer whether reforms are being attempted. It is whether the accumulated digital, legal and procedural changes have fundamentally lowered the cost and complexity of doing business.

The verdict will come in 2026.

But the groundwork - expansive, data-heavy and structurally ambitious - is already in motion.

As India approaches the 2026 B-READY evaluation, the real question is no longer whether reforms are being attempted. It is whether the accumulated digital, legal and procedural changes have fundamentally lowered the cost and complexity of doing business. The verdict will come in 2026.

Previous News