Business
India Got Independence 78 Years Ago, Its High Time We Give Our Businesses More Freedom: Analysis
New Delhi: India’s entrepreneurial dream is facing a powerful barrier — its own regulatory machinery. A landmark report by Gautam Chikermane (Observer Research Foundation) and Rishi Agrawal, released in 2022, paints a striking picture of how excessive criminalization, outdated laws are stifling the country’s economic potential.
A Legal Maze That Can Put You Behind Bars
India’s business ecosystem is governed by 1,536 Acts at the union, state, and local levels, embedding 26,134 clauses that carry the possibility of imprisonment. These aren’t limited to serious fraud or environmental damage; even procedural lapses can send a businessperson to jail.
54 percent of all Acts—over 843 laws—contain criminal penalties. Of these, 29 percent are made at the Union level, while the remaining 71 percent come from the states.
The absurdity is often in the details. Some violations—like failing to whitewash walls, display a mandatory notice, or maintain a register—can result in up to three years in prison, a punishment on par with violent crimes.
Report Link: Jailed for Doing Business: The 26,134 Imprisonment Clauses in India’s Business Laws
Labour Laws: The Biggest Barricade
Labour-related regulations alone account for roughly half of all compliance obligations and contribute to 65 percent of imprisonment clauses. The Factories Act, 1948 is particularly stringent, making up 31 percent of these criminal provisions.
Transparency International Report
India ranks 96th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, scoring just 38/100. KPMG estimates corruption costs India Rs 921 billion annually—over 1 percent of GDP.
Compliance Delay
Multiple studies have shown administrative lackluster in making approvals and compliance unnecessarily time-consuming.
Rent-Seeking Culture:
Complex procedures give officials discretionary powers. Instead of enabling business, extracting “fees” from entrepreneurs becomes the focal point.
The Economic Consequences
Such regulatory stranglehold has a direct impact on India’s growth trajectory:
Inhibits Business Formation – Fear of jail even for paperwork errors keeps many entrepreneurs from registering formally.
Discourages Investment – A hostile compliance climate pushes startups and investors toward friendlier jurisdictions.
Raises the Cost of Doing Business – Frequent inspections, legal risks, and “unofficial costs” eat into margins.
Limits Job Creation – Small businesses, the backbone of employment, suffer most—exacerbating India’s jobless growth challenge.
Modi Govt’s Reforms Implemented Since the Report
The 2022 Chikermane-Agrawal report has spurred notable changes:
Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 – Decriminalized over 180 provisions across 42 central laws, replacing many jail terms with fines or compounding.
Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 (Budget 2025) – Proposes decriminalizing 100+ additional minor provisions; aims to further reduce court burden and improve ease of doing business.
Companies Amendment Acts (2019 & 2020) – Decriminalized dozens of corporate offences and replaced imprisonment with administrative adjudication for minor violations.
Labour Law Overhaul – Four labour codes have replaced over 1,200 sections with only 22 carrying imprisonment, most for serious breaches.
State-Level Initiatives –
Telangana: Reforming 17 departments to replace minor offences with monetary penalties.
Uttar Pradesh: “Nivesh Mitra 3.0” aims to remove 98 percent of imprisonment clauses in state and concurrent laws by end-2025.
Kerala: Drafting legislation to decriminalize minor state-level offences.
What Needs to Change: Key Policy Priorities
If India is to truly unlock its economic potential, the country must move from a punishment-first regulatory mindset to one that fosters trust, efficiency, and enterprise. That requires targeted reforms in four critical areas.
First, India must end the criminalization of routine business compliance. Sending entrepreneurs to jail for failing to display a notice or update a register is not only disproportionate—it’s counterproductive. Imprisonment should be reserved for serious offences involving fraud, environmental damage, or willful harm. All other minor infractions should be addressed through monetary penalties, warnings, or compounding mechanisms.
Second, the state must tackle administrative inefficiency head-on. Endless paperwork, overlapping approvals, and outdated manual systems slow down business formation and expansion. Streamlining laws, introducing single-window clearance systems (which the government has incessantly focusing upon for the last 1.5 decades), and expanding end-to-end digital approvals can significantly reduce the time and cost of compliance.
Third, corruption and rent-seeking behaviours must be dismantled. Discretionary powers in the hands of inspectors and officials often create opportunities for bribes and harassment. Strong oversight, transparent processes, and reduced human intervention in approvals are essential to restoring fairness and trust in the system.
Finally, India must remove the fear factor from entrepreneurship. A regulatory environment built on intimidation discourages risk-taking, drives businesses into the informal sector, and deters investment. Instead, the state should position itself as a guide and facilitator—offering clear guidance, compliance support, and a business-friendly tone that encourages rather than punishes.
By addressing these four priorities, India can move decisively toward a more enabling, transparent, and growth-oriented business environment—one where entrepreneurship thrives and economic potential is fully realised.
The Chikermane report is a wake-up call. If India wants to become a global economic powerhouse, it must decriminalize routine business compliance, simplify its regulatory architecture, and restore trust between the state and its entrepreneurs.
Govt Reforms In Last Few Years Instilled Confidence Among Entreprenuers
Reforms like the Jan Vishwas Acts and labour code simplification are steps in the right direction—but they must be implemented swiftly and uniformly across states. Without urgent reform, India risks smothering its own growth potential, driving innovation underground, and denying millions the opportunities they deserve.
(Opinion Expressed In The Article Are That Of The Author. Zee News Does Not Endorse)
One of Britain’s most prolific rail fare dodgers could face jail after admitting dozens of travel offences.
Charles Brohiri, 29, pleaded guilty to travelling without buying a ticket a total of 112 times over a two-year period, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
He could be ordered to pay more than £18,000 in unpaid fares and legal costs, the court was told.
He will be sentenced next month.
District Judge Nina Tempia warned Brohiri “could face a custodial sentence because of the number of offences he has committed”.
He pleaded guilty to 76 offences on Thursday.
It came after he was convicted in his absence of 36 charges at a previous hearing.
During Thursday’s hearing, Judge Tempia dismissed a bid by Brohiri’s lawyers to have the 36 convictions overturned.
They had argued the prosecutions were unlawful because they had not been brought by a qualified legal professional.
But Judge Tempia rejected the argument, saying there had been “no abuse of this court’s process”.
JSW Jetour T2 Launch: JSW Motors Limited, the passenger vehicle arm of the JSW Group, is reportedly preparing to enter the Indian car market this year. It has partnered with Jetour, a China-based automotive brand owned by Chery Automobile, and the Jetour T2 SUV could be the company’s first product, according to the reports.
Media reports suggest that the launch will happen independently and not under the JSW MG Motor India joint venture. The SUV will wear a JSW badge and name, instead of the Jetour branding. The upcoming SUV will be assembled at JSW’s upcoming greenfield manufacturing facility in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra.
According to the reports, the company plans to have the vehicle on sale by the third quarter of this year. With this move, JSW aims to establish itself as a standalone carmaker in India.
Expected Powertrain
The SUV is likely to arrive with a 1.5-litre plug-in hybrid setup. Internationally, this hybrid powertrain is offered with both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive options. It is still unclear which version will be introduced in India.
Design
In terms of design, the T2 is a large and rugged-looking SUV. It has a boxy and upright stance, similar to vehicles like the Land Rover Defender. Despite its tough appearance, it uses a monocoque chassis instead of a ladder-frame construction.
Size
The SUV measures around 4.7 metres in length and nearly 2 metres in width. This makes it larger than the Tata Safari, even though it is a five-seater. A longer 7-seat version is also sold in some markets.
Price
Pricing details for India are yet to be announced. For reference, the front-wheel-drive five-seat T2 i-DM is priced at AED 1,44,000 (around Rs 35 lakh) in the UAE.
Jetour
Jetour is a brand owned by Chinese automaker Chery. Launched in 2018, it focuses mainly on SUVs and is present in markets across China, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
John Swinney has been pressed over whether this week’s Scottish Budget gives some workers the “smallest tax cut in history” – with Tory leader Russell Findlay branding the reduction “miserly” and “insulting”.
The Scottish Conservative leader challenged the First Minister after Tuesday’s Holyrood Budget effectively cut taxes for lower earners, by increasing the threshold for the basic and intermediate bands of income tax.
But Mr Findlay said that would leave workers at most £31.75 a year better off – saying this amounts to a saving of just £61p a week
“That wouldn’t even buy you a bag of peanuts,” the Scottish Tory leader said.
“John Swinney’s Budget might even have broken a world record, because a Scottish Government tax adviser says it ‘maybe the smallest tax cut in history’.”
Raising the “miserly cut” at First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Findlay demanded to know if the SNP leader believed his “insulting tax cut will actually help Scotland’s struggling households”.
The attack came as the Tory accused the SNP government of increasing taxes on higher earners, with its freeze on higher income tax thresholds, which will pull more Scots into these brackets.
This is needed to pay for the “SNP’s out of control, unaffordable benefits bill”, the Conservative added.
Mr Findlay said: “The Scottish Conservatives will not back and cannot back a Budget that does nothing to help Scotland’s workers and businesses.
“It hammers people with higher taxes to fund a bloated benefits system.”
Hitting out at Labour – whose leader Anas Sarwar has already declared they will not block the government’s Budget – Mr Findlay said: “It is absolutely mind-blowing that Labour and other so-called opposition parties will let this SNP boorach of a budget pass.
“Don’t the people of Scotland deserve lower taxes, fairer benefits and a government focused on economic growth?”
Mr Swinney said the Budget “delivers on the priorities of the people of Scotland” by “strengthening our National Health Service and supporting people and businesses with the challenges of the cost of living”.
He insisted income tax decisions in the Budget would mean that in 2026-27 “55% of Scottish taxpayers are now expected to pay less income tax than if they lived in England”.
The First Minister went on to say that showed “the people of Scotland have a Government that is on their side”.
Referring to polls putting his party on course to win the Holyrood elections in May, the SNP leader added that “all the current indications show the people of Scotland want to have this Government here for the long term”.
Benefits funding is “keeping children out of poverty”, he told MSPs, adding the Budget contained a “range of measures” that would build on existing support.
The First Minister said: “What that is a demonstration of is a Government that is on the side of the people of Scotland and I am proud of the measures we set out in the Budget on Tuesday.”
Meanwhile he said the Tories wanted to make tax cuts that would cost £1 billion, with “not a scrap of detail about how that would be delivered”.
With the weekly leaders’ question time clash coming less than 48 hours after the draft 2026-27 Budget was unveiled, the First Minister also faced questions from Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar, who insisted that the proposals “lacks ambition for Scotland”.
Pressing his SNP rival, the Scottish Labour leader said: “While he brags about his £6 a year tax cut for the lowest paid, one million Scots including nurses, teachers and police officers face being forced to pay more.
“Even his own tax adviser says this is a political stunt. So why does John Swinney believe that someone earning £33,500 has the broadest shoulders and therefore should pay more tax in Scotland?”
Mr Swinney, however, said that many public sector workers would be better off in Scotland.
He told the Scottish Labour leader: “A band six nurse at the bottom of the scale will take home an additional £1,994 after tax compared to the same band in England.
“A qualified teacher at the bottom of the band will take home £6,365 more after tax in Scotland than the equivalent in England. There are the facts for Mr Sarwar.”
Skincare brand Genaura promotes marketer Young to MD
Trident accelerates European home textiles expansion
Fiza Ali extends heartwarming wishes to ex-husband on his second marriage
-
Politics1 week agoUK says provided assistance in US-led tanker seizure
-
Entertainment1 week agoDoes new US food pyramid put too much steak on your plate?
-
Entertainment1 week agoWhy did Nick Reiner’s lawyer Alan Jackson withdraw from case?
-
Business1 week agoTrump moves to ban home purchases by institutional investors
-
Sports1 week agoPGA of America CEO steps down after one year to take care of mother and mother-in-law
-
Sports5 days agoClock is ticking for Frank at Spurs, with dwindling evidence he deserves extra time
-
Business1 week agoBulls dominate as KSE-100 breaks past 186,000 mark – SUCH TV
-
Sports6 days ago
Commanders go young, promote David Blough to be offensive coordinator