On 7 June 2026, the Press Information Bureau released a sweeping backgrounder titled "Ease of Doing Business: Strengthening India's Business Framework." It stock-takes more than a decade of reform aimed at shifting India from a compliance-heavy regulatory regime to a facilitation-driven ecosystem. For CDS and OTA aspirants, Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) is one of the most reliable economy and governance themes in the paper — and this single release ties together almost every reform name, body and ranking you are likely to be asked about. Below is a structured map of the whole landscape.
The headline: where India's rankings stand
EoDB is most often tested through global indices, so anchor these first. In the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2020, India's rank improved from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019 — a jump of 79 positions in five years. (The Doing Business Report has since been discontinued by the World Bank, an important caveat to note, with a successor "Business Ready / B-READY" framework in development.) Other benchmarks cited include the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, where India rose from 43 in 2021 to 41 in 2025; the World Bank's GovTech Maturity Index, which placed India in the top "Group A" in 2020, 2022 and 2025; and the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), where India climbed from 54th in 2014 to 38th in 2023. These rankings are the scaffolding for the entire topic.
Business entry: faster, paperless formation
The first pillar is making it easier to start and formalise a business.
- Startup India, launched in January 2016, aims to make India "a nation of job creators rather than job seekers," backed by the Seed Fund, a Fund of Funds, and a credit guarantee scheme. From 502 recognised startups in 2016, the count crossed 2.23 lakh by March 2026, with about 48% having at least one woman director — a strong inclusivity data point.
- SPICe+ (introduced in 2020) is an integrated web form offering 11 services from three central ministries plus state services, collapsing some 10 separate procedures (incorporation, PAN, TAN, DIN, GSTIN, EPFO, ESIC, bank account, etc.) into a single online filing.
- MCA21 Version 3 added e-Scrutiny, e-Adjudication and e-Consultation to corporate filings, processing the bulk of filings through a Straight Through Process.
- The Udyam Registration Portal (July 2020) gives MSMEs a free, paperless, self-declaration-based registration linked to CBDT and GSTN databases.
These entry reforms connect closely to the broader study of market structures and how firms enter and compete, covered in the CDS economy study material.
Property, permits and the assault on "Inspector Raj"
The second pillar tackles land records and permits, traditionally the most friction-ridden parts of doing business.
- DILRMP (Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme) has digitised cadastral maps for over 97% of the country, introduced the ULPIN — a 14-digit "Aadhaar for Land" assigned to over 36 crore parcels — and enabled online, digitally signed land records in many states.
- The NGDRS (National Generic Document Registration System), branded "One Nation, One Registration," streamlines property registration across states.
- On permits, the four Labour Codes consolidated 29 central labour laws; the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code alone replaced 13 laws, introducing single registration, single return, single all-India licences and deemed approvals, and replacing the inspector with an "Inspector-cum-Facilitator" under a randomised, web-based system designed to end "Inspector Raj."
- Environmental clearances were streamlined: the PARIVESH 2.0 single-window hub cut average environmental-clearance time to about 64 days, and pollution-board Consent to Operate was made valid until cancelled (removing repeated renewals).
This decriminalisation-and-facilitation thrust links to the role of statutory and regulatory bodies you study in polity.
Markets, logistics and procurement
The third pillar deepens market connectivity.
- GeM (Government e-Marketplace), launched 2016, is the public-procurement platform that has crossed a cumulative Gross Merchandise Value of ₹18.4 lakh crore, with a strong share going to MSEs, women-led enterprises and startups.
- ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), launched April 2022, aims to democratise e-commerce through open protocols, reducing dependence on monopolistic platforms.
- PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (October 2021) integrates 58 central ministries and all states/UTs on a unified geospatial platform for multimodal infrastructure planning, cutting delays and asset duplication.
- The National Logistics Portal (Marine) and Logistics Data Bank (LDB) 2.0 digitise maritime and container logistics, supporting the gains reflected in India's improved LPI rank.
Credit, tax and trade
The remaining pillars cover the financing, tax and cross-border environment.
- Credit access: the Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGTMSE), the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) — which has disbursed loans worth over ₹40 lakh crore — and TReDS (Trade Receivables Discounting System) for MSME liquidity all feature. These connect to the working of the banking sector.
- Tax: the Goods and Services Tax (GST), implemented 1 July 2017, replaced a fragmented web of excise duty, service tax, VAT and CST; registered taxpayers rose from about 60 lakh in 2017 to over 1.64 crore in 2026. Add faceless assessment (2019), the new income-tax e-filing portal (2021), and the E-Way Bill system that removed border check-posts.
- Trade: the National Single Window System (NSWS), the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative, the Export Promotion Mission, ICEGATE (the customs electronic gateway), and the eCoO 2.0 certificate-of-origin system all ease cross-border trade.
Two reforms that bind the whole framework together
Beyond the six pillars, two structural reforms deserve special mention because they cut across the entire business lifecycle and are heavily tested.
The first is the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 — arguably the single most consequential EoDB reform. Before the IBC, exiting a failed business or recovering dues from a defaulter could take years through a tangle of overlapping laws. The Code created a time-bound, creditor-driven resolution process (originally targeting resolution within 180 days, extendable to 270/330 days), administered through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and overseen by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). By improving the "resolving insolvency" parameter, the IBC was a major driver of India's ranking jump and fundamentally changed creditor-debtor behaviour.
The second is the decriminalisation drive, embodied in the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, which decriminalised more than 180 minor offences across dozens of central laws, converting jail terms for technical, non-fraudulent lapses into monetary penalties. This "trust-based governance" philosophy — treating the entrepreneur as a partner rather than a suspect — is the connecting thread running through the labour codes, the Inspector-cum-Facilitator model and the consent reforms described above. Underpinning all of it is India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker and the broader "India Stack" — which makes paperless identity, payments and document verification possible at population scale, lowering the transaction cost of doing business across every pillar.
Why it matters for the exam
EoDB sits at the intersection of economy, governance and polity, which is why it recurs. The smart way to revise is not to memorise every statistic, but to hold the six-pillar framework — entry, permits/property, markets, credit, tax, trade — and slot two or three flagship schemes under each. That structure lets you answer almost any EoDB question, whether it asks for a ranking, a scheme, or the body that runs it, and it pairs well with the wider CDS economy hub.
Rapid revision: Q&A
- Q. How did India's World Bank Doing Business rank change from 2014? From 142 (2014) to 63 (2019) — a jump of 79 places.
- Q. When was Startup India launched? In January 2016.
- Q. What does SPICe+ do? It is an integrated web form that consolidates ~10 company-incorporation procedures into one filing.
- Q. When was GST implemented? 1 July 2017.
- Q. What is ULPIN? A 14-digit "Aadhaar for Land" parcel identifier under DILRMP.
- Q. How many central labour laws did the four Labour Codes consolidate? 29 (the OSH Code alone replaced 13).
- Q. When was PM GatiShakti launched, and what does it do? October 2021; integrated multimodal infrastructure planning on a unified geospatial platform.
- Q. What is GeM? The Government e-Marketplace (2016) for public procurement.
- Q. What replaced state border check-posts for goods movement? The E-Way Bill system.
Reform names, schemes and rankings are easy marks once you have the framework. Keep building it with the daily CDS/OTA current affairs, and see how mentor-led economy coaching ties it all together in Cavalier's upcoming courses in Delhi.
India's Ease of Doing Business journey is essentially the story of the state getting out of the way — digitising, decriminalising and consolidating until starting and running a business became faster and cheaper. For the CDS aspirant, mastering the reform map is one of the highest-return investments you can make in the economy section.