FirstHand

India’s regulatory state did not vanish with liberalisation; it fragmented. What was once a visible apparatus of control evolved into a dispersed web of approvals, filings, inspections, and digital obligations that quietly shape the cost of doing business. Designed originally to manage scarcity and risk, these systems accumulated through inertia rather than intent, weighing most heavily on small and mid-sized enterprises. Recent reforms—from MSME reclassification and labour code consolidation to the rollback of Quality Control Orders and regulatory rationalisation—signal a deeper shift underway: a move from suspicion to trust, from control to scale. The emerging regulatory architecture is not about less governance, but better governance—disciplined, proportionate, and aligned with the tempo of a modern economy.