Why India Should Sell Safety, Not Ease of Business

By Govindraj Ethiraj

Last month, I was invited to speak at an industry gathering where the presentations flanking mine fixated on a familiar obsession of tax minutiae and the "ease of doing business." 

Having sat through countless such panels, I was struck once again by a perennial truth. 

Indian businesses still expend a staggering amount of capital and caloric energy simply battling the regulatory system.

"Ease of doing business" has become a rhetorical catch-all to describe the bureaucratic agony of enterprise in India and the piecemeal efforts to relieve it. 

And looking back on decades of reform promises, one wonders if we will ever reach a point where commerce feels genuinely unimpeded. 

India’s Regulatory Maze

India famously climbed to 63rd place in the World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business rankings, up from 142 in 2014.

We don’t have a ranking after that because the Bank scrapped the index entirely amidst data irregularities and ethical scandals.

Yet, much like India’s headline GDP numbers, the corporate reality on the ground rarely aligns with the optimism of the metrics.

Consider the regulatory thicket. A TeamLease Reg Tech study two years ago calculated that India Inc must navigate a labyrinth of 1,536 acts, 69,233 compliances, and 6,618 annual filings. 

While no single company bears the entire brunt, the exact load varies by geography, sector, and headcount, the aggregate burden remains suffocating. 

Labor regulations alone account for nearly half of all compliance requirements and, alarmingly, 68% of the provisions that carry imprisonment clauses. 

Even when the state manages to streamline one set of rules, as it has in the last two years, a new hydra inevitably emerges elsewhere, often within or around the tax codes. 

The competencies required to manage this friction shift, but the total burden rarely diminishes.

This reality prompts a necessary question: Is it time to move the goalposts? 

Rethinking India’s Investment Pitch

In an interview I conducted last week in Mumbai, Jahangir Aziz, Co-Head of Macroeconomic Research at JP Morgan, suggested exactly that. 

For thirty years, India has tried to improve the ease of doing business, and it frankly hasn't eased much. 

Why, he asked, should we continue fighting a battle that is structurally hostile to victory?

Instead, Aziz argues, India must pivot from pitching itself as the cheapest or easiest place to do business to positioning itself as the safest. 

The guiding principle of global capital allocation has profoundly shifted over the last five years. 

Multinational corporations and investors are no longer chasing marginal cost arbitrage; they are deploying trillions to secure supply chain resilience, he says. 

Aziz noted that JP Morgan alone wields a $1.5 trillion loan book to promote security and resiliency, alongside $10 billion of its own capital invested in companies advancing those exact goals.

The Case For Resilience

The vulnerabilities of the old model are glaring. 

India’s pharmaceutical industry, a massive global exporter of generic drugs, remains perilously dependent on Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). 

If Beijing halts exports, the Indian drug sector collapses. 

Global investors are now willing to pay a premium to mitigate this kind of geopolitical and operational risk. 

This does not mean we abandon the crusade for simpler industrial policies or a rationalised tax code. 

But we must recognise that genuine ease of doing business will evolve at a glacial pace. 

In the interim, our immediate focus as Aziz says, must be on offering global capital the one asset it currently values above all else: a sanctuary of safety and resilience.

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Rs 3.2 trillion

That’s how much private corporate capital expenditure is estimated to reach in FY27, according to a report in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) September bulletin. The estimate is based on the pipeline of projects financed through banks and financial institutions, external commercial borrowings and initial public offerings.

The comparable capex through these channels stood at Rs 2.6 trillion in FY26, suggesting that private investment could maintain its momentum. However, the estimate only covers projects already in the pipeline and does not include projects that could be sanctioned during FY27.

By the Numbers: The total cost of projects sanctioned by banks and financial institutions hit a record Rs 4.4 trillion in FY26, up from Rs 3.7 trillion a year earlier.

The Lead: Infrastructure accounted for 54.2% of sanctioned project costs, led by power, roads and bridges. Greenfield projects accounted for 89.2% of project costs reported by banks and financial institutions.

However, the RBI cautioned that actual spending will depend on how quickly these projects are implemented and how global economic conditions evolve.

Festival Shopping Gets Costlier

Air-conditioners, TVs and other home appliances are set to become more expensive from October 1, with manufacturers raising prices by up to 8% ahead of the festive season. AC prices could rise 5-8%, while some companies are raising prices of washing machines, refrigerators and LED TVs by around 3-4%.

Why It Matters: This marks the industry’s third price hike of 2026. Manufacturers are facing higher costs for copper, aluminium, steel and crude-oil derivatives, along with rising freight expenses and currency pressures. Several companies have already announced increases, including Blue Star, Godrej Appliances, Haier, Daikin and Super Plastronics.

Pivot: But consumers may still find some products at older prices during Diwali. Dealers stocked up before the latest increases, creating a pipeline of older inventory.

“Price hikes of 5-7% across categories will happen,” said Kamal Nandi, business head and executive vice-president at Godrej Enterprises Group.

Govt Pushes Coal Plants Harder

The Ministry of Power has invoked Section 11 of the Electricity Act, directing captive coal-based power plants of 50 MW and above to operate at maximum available capacity. The move comes amid an anticipated rise in electricity demand in the coming months, with the ministry stating it is taking steps to ensure adequate supply to consumers.

Overview: The directive requires generators to sell surplus power after meeting captive needs, through power exchanges. Plants must also maintain sufficient coal stocks to sustain uninterrupted operations. These directions will remain in effect from October 1 to December 31, 2026.

Setup: The plants must submit weekly reports to the Central Electricity Authority detailing generation levels, captive consumption, exchange sales, available capacity, and coal stock position.

Boeing MAX Glitch

Boeing has identified a software issue on some 737 MAX aircraft that could disrupt automated flight guidance during a missed approach, increasing pilot workload during landing. The problem can occur when pilots abort a landing and then change the aircraft’s programmed flight path.

Impact: Boeing told CBS News it notified operators about the issue last month and is working on a permanent software fix. “Our engineers are working on a software update to permanently address the issue,” a Boeing spokesperson said. The US Federal Aviation Administration is also reviewing the problem.

Context: The issue comes as India faces heightened scrutiny over aviation safety following the June 2025 Air India Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad, which killed 260 people. While the crash involved a different Boeing aircraft and investigators have not linked it to this MAX software issue, the latest glitch adds to concerns around aircraft safety and oversight. Air India Express and Akasa Air together operate around 96 737 MAX aircraft.

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