Ease of Doing Business Reforms in India: A Legal and Public Analysis

Abstract The ease with which firms can establish themselves, operate, scale, and exit a market is closely linked to the quality of its legal and administrative institutions. Ease of Doing Business (EDB) has become a focal point of India’s economic policy in recent years. The reform agenda has moved beyond the removal of licensing hurdles and now includes digitalization, regulatory simplification, compliance reduction, insolvency reforms, taxation, single-window governance, and the rationalization of petty offenses. This paper attempts to assess India’s EDB reforms through the lens of legal and policy analysis. Reforming procedural bureaucracy is not the end goal – the emphasis is on whether legal and administrative changes have led to a significant improvement in terms of accessibility, predictability, efficiency, and cost reduction. The study tries to understand the constitutional underpinnings of economic freedoms, examines the laws and policies relating to corporate regulations, insolvency, taxation, digitalization, competitive federalism, and compliance reduction. It also analyses the reforms such as National Single Window System in terms of institutional mechanisms. The paper employs a doctrinal and qualitative research design. It focuses on the law, policy, and institutional mechanisms rather than quantifying the reform impact. Legal texts, policy documents, and scholarly literature are analysed to identify connections between procedural reforms and actual governance outcomes. The paper finds that India has made significant strides in reforming its regulatory framework but faces challenges in harmonizing diverse jurisdictions, reducing overlapping oversight, and removing protracted litigation. Digitalization reduces transaction costs, insolvency laws facilitate faster resolution of business closures, and compliance reduction initiatives target regulatory hurdles. However, inconsistent implementation, judicial delays, regulatory complexities, and disproportionate cost-benefit for small-scale enterprises remain pertinent issues. The paper concludes that India needs to shift from the EDB paradigm and focus on Ease of Complying, Competing, and Resolving Disputes. While deregulation is important, India needs a balanced approach that targets transaction costs while maintaining the rule of law.