Vinod Murugan

India suffers from ‘regulatory cholesterol’ that is getting in the way of doing business. The legislations, rules and regulations enacted by the Union and State governments has over time created barriers to the smooth flow of ideas, organisation, money, entrepreneurship and through them the creation of jobs, wealth and GDP. The presence of hostile clauses in these laws, rules and regulations has grown since Independence, surviving three decades of economic reforms initiated in 1991. The biggest challenges come from the continuance of imprisonment as a tool of control. As automation increases in the coming years, the pre-Independence 1940s-style administrative controls meant to protect labour will prove counter-productive in 21st-century India.