Key Points

During a high-level workshop on ease of doing business and investment promotion in New Delhi, he emphasised that there is much to learn from within the country itself, citing the diversity of successful models across states.

Subrahmanyam called for streamlined systems, enhanced accountability, and coordinated efforts between the Centre and states to make India the most attractive and dependable destination for global capital.

The workshop brought together senior policymakers to accelerate business reforms across India. Deliberations were held across seven core reform areas vital to investment facilitation and improving the ease of doing business at the sub-national level.

These included Decriminalisation of Laws; Deregulation and Compliance Burden Reduction; Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) Implementation; Development of Industrial Infrastructure; Single Window Clearance Systems; Financial and Taxation Reforms; Investment Promotion Strategies.

During the session on decriminalization and compliance reform, several states presented their ongoing initiatives stemming from the Jan Vishwas Act 1.0, highlighting efforts to decriminalize minor business-related offences at the State level.

States also emphasised a shift toward enhancing the "Speed of Doing Business", with a focus on reducing the number of stages in the business lifecycle to enable faster, more seamless operations for enterprises.

The discussion underscored the need to convert minor business offences into civil penalties, while also streamlining compliance mechanisms to reduce the burden on entrepreneurs. States shared examples of removing imprisonment clauses, adopting self-certification regimes, removal of licence renewal and simplifying regulatory touchpoints to encourage ease of compliance and build trust with businesses.

There was also a strong emphasis on aligning state-level actions with the national Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) framework, ensuring that reforms lead to measurable and comparable improvements.

Industry representatives advocated for the enactment of a national-level legislation to harmonise decriminalization and compounding provisions, across States. They also suggested the introduction of a Trusted Taxpayers Programme for both direct and indirect taxes, to incentivize compliance and promote a more facilitative regulatory environment.

The session on Investment Promotion Strategies stressed the need to institutionalise investment promotion as a continuous, core State function rather than an event-based activity. States presented innovative, sector-specific strategies grounded in local strengths and global demand trends.

Rajiv Gauba, Member, NITI Aayog, noted that ease of doing business is a work in progress and stressed the importance of reforms at the municipal level within states.

He highlighted the potential for collaboration between NITI Aayog and DPIIT to support states in adopting a principle-based approach to decriminalisation.

SCL Das, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, highlighted the need to strengthen the institutional interface of MSMEs with CBIC and State/UT governments.

- IANS