Business in India: Over regulation a problem, says Indian author
What many see as India’s burdensome over-regulation continues to be a major problem in India, prominent Indian author and journalist Shankkar Aiyar told Borderless News.
Companies often complain of over regulation in India, and surveys – such as a 2011 poll taken by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd – have found that the country tops the list of Asia’s most over regulated economies.
“If you want to build a hotel in India, you need 90 clearances,” he lamented as he spoke of the hoops and hurdles firms must jump just to set up shop.
“Clearances is an industry in itself,” he said, contending that there is little incentive for change because so many bureaucrats benefit. “Vested interests in the current system are so entrenched that nothing will change.”
Aiyar called for bringing more technology into play, such as allowing companies to register online, or allowing chambers of commerce to play a greater role in registration, for example.
But when it comes to placing demands on government to lessen hefty bureaucratic requirements, Aiyar said India’s business community is weak in the knees.
“Companies, business, must come out…and disagree with the government,” said Aiyar on Thursday after a talk at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. “They tend to be part of the genuflection club.”
In his recent book Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change, Aiyar wrote that India’s rise stems from a series of historical accidents, not from planning.
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