Abstract

It is considered that the ease of business in India has improved immensely in India during the recent times. This has propelled India from 142nd position in 2014 to 63rd position in 2019 when it comes to ease of doing business. One has to consider that when India became independent in 1947, the dismal state of the economy and the mistrust for Western economic model made India gravitate more towards a publicly controlled approach to production and industry building. This leaned even more towards the socialist approach during the license era that ended only in the 1980s. Even during the 1980s, transitioning towards trade liberalisation was slow. The state of public sector undertakings and the economy though, made India move definitively towards liberalisation in the 1990s. This new spurt towards private sector has seen further push since the central dispensation came under Modi in 2014. Steps like demonetisation and GST have led to businesses becoming nimbler on their feet. A push towards digitalisation and simplification of business processes has also taken place. The number of legislations and requirements have both seen a reduction. This has made business building an easier exercise in the country. At the same time, there has been an active push towards building infrastructure and an industry that relies upon domestic manufacturing rather than imports. It is considered that this would get even further push as India eyes movement from the fifth to the third largest economy in the World. At the same time, India would have to bolster regulations related to emerging trends like AI and related emergent technologies. It would also have to ensure sustainability building in businesses. Also, businesses would have to become more inclusive in nature in order to ensure that economic disparity is reduced.

Keywords