For India to achieve its vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047, sustaining an annual growth rate of 7.8% is essential, as projected by the World Bank. The current growth rate of 6.3% highlights a significant 1.5% shortfall, emphasising the urgent need for structural reforms. Deregulation has emerged as a powerful tool to bridge this gap, with strong evidence linking it to faster economic growth. While national initiatives like the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) have laid important groundwork, sustained progress depends on state governments actively addressing local regulatory hurdles and inefficiencies.
Among the other Indian states, Rajasthan has demonstrated a proactive commitment to enterprise-friendly policies. The state’s 2025-26 budget outlines progressive reforms, including streamlined fire NOC processes, extended validity periods, and relaxed working-hour restrictions for women in industrial and commercial establishments. These measures align with Rajasthan’s ambition to become a $350 billion economy by 2029, fostering an attractive ecosystem for domestic and foreign investment.
However, to further amplify its reform agenda, Rajasthan must benchmark its performance against global and domestic best practices. For instance, Tamil Nadu’s digital permitting system, Ahmedabad’s flexible zoning laws, and Japan’s risk-based land-use regulations offer actionable insights for refining the state’s regulatory frameworks. Ultimately, such efforts will strengthen Rajasthan’s position as an investment destination, drive MSME growth, and generate employment—key pillars of inclusive and sustainable development.
About the Project
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Objectives:
Against this backdrop, CUTS International seeks to conduct an as-is analysis of Rajasthan’s existing regulatory reforms in order to identify its strengths and areas for improvement through a systematic benchmarking exercise against five identified areas. The areas identified are: Land; Building & Construction; Labour; Environment and State Single Window.
Methodology
1. Secondary Research: Conducting a structured analysis of Rajasthan’s regulatory framework, systematically compiling and examining all relevant approvals, procedures, forms, and compliance requirements from the state’s single-window portal and departmental websites, including laws, notifications, circulars, rules, codes, and policy plans.
This involves a thorough assessment of application processes, required documentation, stipulated timelines, conditional restrictions, applicable thresholds, and associated costs, while also mapping both digital and physical compliance touchpoints.
2. Comparative Benchmarking: Benchmarking Rajasthan’s regulatory framework against peer states and global jurisdictions, evaluating key parameters like process efficiency, timelines, compliance costs, documentation needs, third-party involvement in inspections and certifications, self certification, extension of validity and expansion of white lists industries.
The comparative analysis will classify findings into two categories: “Good Practices” showcasing Rajasthan’s strengths, and “Areas for Improvement” identifying gaps. For the latter, the study will provide detailed, actionable reform recommendations to enhance Rajasthan’s regulatory ecosystem, drawing from international good practices as well as good practices from other states to propose concrete solutions for streamlining processes and reducing compliance burdens.
3. Stakeholder Consultation with Industry: The research will involve comprehensive engagement with diverse industry stakeholders, including businesses, industry associations, MSMEs, legal experts, and consultants, to gather nuanced insights. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires will be used to validate secondary research findings and address knowledge gaps, ensuring a robust evidence base.
Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be conducted with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and consultants—both within Rajasthan and other states—to examine regulatory challenges. These discussions will assess process inefficiencies, time and cost burdens, documentation complexities, digital infrastructure limitations, administrative bottlenecks, and any discrepancies between regulatory intent and ground-level implementation.
4. Stakeholder Consultation with Government: Consultations and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be conducted with key government departments and the Bureau of Investment Promotion (BIP), Rajasthan’s investment promotion agency. These engagements are designed to gather valuable insights into current regulatory processes, the rationale behind specific procedures and documentation requirements, and the government’s operational challenges.
This collaborative approach will also help assess perceived strengths within the system and clarify administrative priorities. The feedback obtained will be instrumental in ensuring that reform recommendations are not only well-informed but also aligned with on-ground realities and government objectives, thereby enhancing the feasibility and effectiveness of proposed solutions.
5. Recommendations: Develop actionable recommendations for process simplification, document streamlining, reducing unnecessary requirements and policy reforms by synthesising insights from secondary research, benchmarking against global/state best practices, and stakeholder feedback. Potential implementation risks will be assessed, with corresponding mitigation strategies proposed to ensure effective adoption.
Project Partner
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Contact Us
Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
D–217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302016, Rajasthan, India
Ph: +91 141 2282821, Fax: +91 141 2282485