As India continues to be among the world’s fastest-growing economies, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has said domestic economic reforms aimed at improving the business environment are critical to further accelerating growth and sharpening India’s competitiveness against other global players.
In its India Reforms Scorecard 3.0, CSIS said some reforms can impact multiple industries at once, while others are more targeted but focus on sectors vital for job creation and long-term growth. The scorecard presents a wish list of 30 reforms that the government should address.
“Domestic economic reforms aimed at improving the business environment are key for further accelerating India’s economic growth and making the country competitive vis-a-vis other global players,” CSIS said in its assessment.
It added that while no reform list can ever be definitive, the exercise is meant to help the public understand the choices on the table and track the pace of progress on individual reform items.
Providing a snapshot of where things stand, Richard Rossow, Chair on India and Emerging Asia Economics at CSIS, said: “Of the 30 reforms we started tracking since June ’24, 1 complete and 1 partially-complete. Lots to do in ’26. Perhaps the next best target: Use the Union Budget to reduce duty inversion.”
According to the scorecard, the rationalisation of GST slabs into merit, demerit and exempt categories has been marked as “completed”. The mandate for “regulatory impact assessment” (RIA) for government bodies while framing legislation, policies, executive orders or regulatory instruments remains “incomplete”.
Among the most prominent is addressing discrepancies arising from the inverted duty structure, where intermediate goods attract higher customs duties than finished goods. The think tank noted that this structure incentivises imports of final goods and hurts domestic manufacturing competitiveness, particularly in the context of free trade agreements.
Other reforms marked as not started include addressing the multiplicity of GST audits for taxpayers registered across different states; establishing a single portal integrating customs, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, ports, banks and shipping companies; and stopping the practice of forcing banks to lend to priority sectors.
The wish list also calls for releasing an annual report detailing the origins and destinations of all inbound foreign direct investment; reducing restrictions on foreign investment in multi-brand retail; cutting bankruptcy case resolution timelines to one year; raising the ceiling on foreign institutional investment in Indian companies; and offering central government permits to business owners within 10 days or less.
CSIS further flagged the need to bring electricity, oil and gas, real estate and alcohol under the GST ambit; establish a 10-year plan to privatise all central public sector enterprises; deregulate natural gas pricing; and create a bankruptcy resolution process for financial firms.
On labour and capital markets, the proposed reforms include amending the Industrial Relations Code to allow retrenchment of up to 1,000 workers without prior government approval; allowing more than 50% foreign investment in direct retail e-commerce; promulgating rules for Indian companies to list on overseas markets; and introducing an umbrella online dispute resolution legislation with a national ODR platform.
The scorecard also lists passing the Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0; enacting the Direct Taxes Code; allowing asset reconstruction companies to buy distressed assets from mutual funds and alternative investment funds; enacting agriculture modernisation laws; streamlining land acquisition; repealing the Factories Act, 1948 and replacing it with comprehensive laws supporting industrial labour employment; creating dedicated customs clearance lanes for e-commerce exports; reducing government equity holding in public sector banks to 33%; creating a single-window compliance mechanism for MSME licences and registrations; freeing up unproductive railway land; and opening legal services to foreign direct investment.
