India has been implementing gradual government efficiency reforms since 2017, focusing on reducing redundancy, enhancing accountability, and modernizing processes. Guided by the PMO and recommendations from the Ratan Watal-led committee, over a dozen redundant bodies were merged or dissolved, minimizing job losses. Key process reforms, like simplifying drone regulations, opening geospatial mapping to private firms, and streamlining company closures via the C-PACE portal, have significantly improved efficiency. These "nuts-and-bolts" changes reflect India’s measured approach to transformative governance, yielding impactful and sustainable results.
India has been steadily advancing its own version of government efficiency reforms, inspired by the need to streamline operations and optimize public expenditure. While the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by President Donald Trump and tech visionary Elon Musk, has garnered significant attention for its aggressive approach, India has chosen a more gradual, thoughtful path. Since 2017, the Indian government has been undertaking structural reforms aimed at minimizing redundancy, enhancing accountability, and modernizing processes—all without significant layoffs.
The seeds of this transformation were sown in 2017 with the formation of the Committee for the Review of Autonomous Bodies, chaired by former finance secretary Ratan Watal. The committee reviewed 679 autonomous bodies under various ministries and recommended the rationalization of about a third of them. “The idea behind the exercise was to trim the flab in the government and use public money with greater efficiency,” Watal explained.
Under the oversight of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Finance, over a dozen autonomous bodies and institutions that had outlived their usefulness or duplicated work were either merged or dissolved. For instance, in 2018, the government closed the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi and Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh under the Department of Health and Family Welfare. Similarly, in 2020, the All India Handloom Board and All India Handicrafts Board were dissolved. By 2022, the Tariff Commission and several railway agencies, such as the Central Organisation for Modernisation of Workshops, were also shut down.
Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM), played a key role in these reforms. “Most of these agencies had either become redundant or failed to serve their original purpose, leading to a waste of public funds,” Sanyal said. He cited the closure of the Tariff Commission as an example, noting that tariff-setting responsibilities were already handled by the Commerce and Finance Ministries. Staff affected by these closures were largely reallocated to other departments, minimizing job losses.
Beyond closures and mergers, the government has enacted “process reforms” to simplify procedures and improve efficiency. A standout example is the 2021 Drone Rules, which streamlined the certification process for flying drones by reducing the number of forms from 25 to 5 and cutting types of fees from 72 to 4. “The drone boom we are seeing today was made possible by simplifying these laws,” Sanyal remarked.
In another instance, the geospatial mapping sector, once monopolized by the Survey of India, was opened up to private companies. This decision allowed businesses to create maps without cumbersome permissions, fostering innovation and efficiency.
Reforms have also extended to areas like packaging and labeling. Previously, frequent changes in labeling regulations caused significant disruptions for small businesses. In 2022, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announced that such changes would only take effect annually on July 1, enabling businesses to plan better and reduce wastage. “This has fundamentally changed the dynamics of the labeling and packaging industry,” said FSSAI CEO Kamala Vardhana Rao.
The government has also launched initiatives like the Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) portal, which has reduced the time required to voluntarily shut down a company from 499 days to just 90 days. Similarly, reforms in the patents sector have led to a dramatic increase in the number of patents granted annually—from 6,000 a decade ago to over 103,000 in the last financial year.
Sanyal emphasized the difference between India’s approach and the high-profile reforms in the US. “They have gone for a blitzkrieg, charging through… but they are also going to face a large number of legal cases and unintended consequences,” he said. In contrast, India’s incremental approach has ensured steady progress while avoiding major disruptions.
Over the past seven years, the Indian government has repealed more than 1,000 obsolete laws and implemented hundreds of small yet impactful process reforms. These “nuts-and-bolts” changes, as Sanyal describes them, aim to streamline operations and improve ease of doing business. “Though incremental, they make a big impact,” said a senior government official.
India’s model of reform demonstrates that gradual, well-considered changes can yield significant results. By focusing on efficiency, accountability, and modernization, the country is quietly transforming its governance landscape—one step at a time.
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