Ease Of Doing Business Watch 2025

The Indian private sector and government collaboration has led to India achieving great success in terms of enhancing its business environment. Initiatives have been put in place to reduce regulatory burdens, simplify procedures and increase transparency – all of which have helped India strengthen its global position as an attractive business destination. The Ease of Doing Business Watch published by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) highlights how it is crucial to extend the scope of EoDB reforms to address specific challenges. The report also presents the latest developments and initiatives by the Government to enhance India’s business environment. 

Key initiatives by the Government to enhance EoDB 

According to ‘Doing Business Report’ of the World Bank, it is getting easier to do business in India as the global ranking improved from 142nd in 2015 to 63rd in 2020. Furthermore, India held the 39th position in IMD’s World Competitiveness Index 2024 and 38th position in World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index 2023. 

Key government initiatives like National Single Window System, decriminalization of minor offences, introduction of the Regulatory Compliance Portal, streamlining of labour and tax laws have helped promote investments and entrepreneurship in India. 

Furthermore, to enhance EoDB, the Union Budget 2025-26 announced the Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 to decriminalise various laws and removal of prosecution for taxpayers who failed to deposit Tax Collected at Source (TCS). It also gave more security to gig workers, formation of a high level committee for regulatory reforms and introduction of an Investment Friendliness Charter to assess investor friendliness and further the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism. 

10-point agenda on EoDB reforms by CII 

Recognising the need to have urgent policy intervention and development in businesses, CII had suggest a 10 specific areas where ease of doing business can be enhanced and help India maintain momentum. Some of the key recommendations include: 

• Use of National Single Window System (NSWS) for all regulatory approvals- central, state and local levels. This will help in bringing transparency and speed up the processes of approvals which is the first step for businesses to establish themselves. 
• Timely processing of industry application and delivery of services from public authority is key to ease of doing business. Imposing statutory obligation and redressal of grievances must be explored for improving this area. 
• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms such as conciliation, mediation and arbitration must be utilised to reduce pendency of cases and increase efficiency. This also requires budgetary allocation to set up the Mediation council of India and Arbitration Council of India. 
• To streamline environmental compliances, a unified document that has relevant provisions from Water Act, 1974, the Air Act, 1981 and Environmental Protection Act, 1986 must be compiled. 
• The India Industrial Land Bank must evolve into a National Level Land Bank to support easy access to land for expanding businesses. Integration of this at the state and national level will allow for quick and digitised access to land records an, disputed and guide necessary reforms.
• To allow for better trade facilitation allied legal metrology rules should be in synced with International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML). 
• To reduce pendency o tax disputes, Advance Pricing Agreement (APA), Boards for Advance Rulings (BAR) and Dispute Resolution Scheme (DRS) must be utilised to the fullest. 

Way Forward

A significant milestone for India will be the commencement of its Enterprise Survey for B-READY in September 2025. B-READY rankings by The World Bank will rank economies across the globe to assess the overall business and investment climate. 

This can be made possible only through close collaboration between the central and state government, along with industry stakeholders. The next wave of reforms on India must also prioritise the integration of advanced technologies and data-driven decision-making in governance to lower compliance costs and time, improve transparency and ensure better predictability.