Against the backdrop of global challenges and heightened uncertainty, the Survey has backed reforms, including regulatory entities, and called for “creating a cadre of professionals”, who are adept in regulatory design and implementation, to improve the ease of doing business.“Policy reforms do matter. Process reforms arguably more so. Processes define the interaction between govt and governed. So, they make all the difference to success or failure of policy intent and reforms. The signs are very promising,” said V Anantha Nageswaran, chief economic adviser and author of the Survey.“The deregulation and smart regulation initiatives undertaken by states in the last year, in particular, provide ample grounds for optimism that the state machinery is capable of reinventing itself and its mission, shifting from regulation and control to enabling. Together with Union govt’s economic reforms and other policy initiatives, this signals that the state understands significance of the challenge and the need to rise to it,” said Nageswaran in the preface to the report card, which backed the “need to reimagine state capacity in all its dimensions.”The Survey says a significant gap persists in the availability of human resources capable of ensuring the efficient functioning of a market economy and recommends that schools of regulatory studies could be established either as new stand-alone institutions or as additions to existing institutions.It also says that to build sustained expertise, regulators and regulatory tribunals should attract professionals at a younger age to pursue dedicated careers.The survey calls for a streamlined, single-tier approval process, coupled with institutional accountability for any lapses, and says this is essential for an economy aspiring to be a developed country.
