April 28, 2025

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COMPLIANCE RAJ ENDING THE RED TAPE

As Donald Trump was turning the world upside down with his tariffs, like a child playing Demolition Derby on a video game, the world was left scrambling to cope with the consequences of the American president's trigger-happy trade policies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pre-emptive trip to the United States did little to shield India from the Trumpian blitzkrieg. Though India was spared the worst and Trump him- self hit a 90-day pause button on April 9, New Delhi had already been mulling ways to strengthen Indian industry in anticipation of Trump's trade war. High on the list was the urgent need to remove the regulatory cholesterol clogging the arteries of India's economic growth. The unanimous consensus among experts: the Compliance Raj must goThe first hint perhaps came in the Economic Survey released 11 days after Trump was sworn in. Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran mentioned the need for deregulation and reforms in land, labour and capital to free businesses from legacy constraints and put the economy on a superfast track to meet the new global context. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman picked up the thread in the budget document a day later, announcing the formation of a high-level committee chaired by cabinet secretary T.V. Somanathan, and comprising officials from the NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister's Office. It was mandated to review all non-financial sector regulations, certifications, licences and permissions. A deregulation commission was mooted too, to work closely with compliance-heavy states. “The objective,” Sitharaman said, “is to strengthen trustbased economic governance and take transformational measures to enhance 'ease of doing business', especially in matters of inspections and compliances. States will be encouraged to join this endeavour.” The Compliance Chokehold From launch to liquidation, businesses in India, big and small, are caught in an exhausting labyrinth of regulations. According to a 2024 white paper by TeamLease RegTech, part of the staffing and human capital firm Teamlease Services, Indian enterprises are subject to a staggering 1,536 different acts, requiring 69,233 compliances and 6,618 annual filings. These regulations operate at multiple tiers—central, state, municipal and panchayat—and often overlap. This is because land is a subject under the state

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Nowhere did the ripples of discontent over the recently passed Waqf Amendment Act spread as viciously as they did in West Bengal. The unrest was particularly intense in the Muslimmajority districts of Murshidabad and Malda, as well as in Bhangor, in South 24 Parganas. What began as simple protests soon escalated into a violent conflagration on April 11­12, once again exposing the deep communal fault lines that run through the state. Three people died, more than 200 arrests were made, and paramilitary forces were deployed. The crisis is a grim reminder of Bengal's shifting political landscape, where the two leading parties--the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the main Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)--are striving to outdo each other in their bid to corner the Hindu vote, creating discontent among the state's large Muslim population, a year before the 2026 assembly electionThe initial spark in Murshidabad was lit in Dhuliyan, in Samserganj block, on April 11. Protesters torched police vehicles and clashed with security forces. In nearby Suti, Ejaz Ahmed was allegedly shot dead by the police. Just a few kilometres away in Samserganj, Hargobindo Das, 70, and his son Chandan, 40, were killed in their own home. The police arrived four hours later. Ironically, the very next day, the police allowed a Ramnavami procession to pass through the area. Some of the marchers allegedly made incendiary speeches; an organiser has since been arrested. On April 15, the police arrested two persons in connection with the murdersChief Minister Mamata Banerjee has publicly rejected the implementation of the amended Waqf law in Bengal. "Dharma means devotion, affection, humanity, peace, culture, harmony, and unity," she declared in