Karnataka accelerates ‘ease of doing business’ with key regulatory reforms

Bengaluru: Karnataka marked a significant milestone on Friday with a high-level meeting on Compliance Reduction and Deregulation, chaired by the Chief Secretary of the Government of Karnataka.

The session witnessed the participation of Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Government of India, who emphasized the state’s commitment to fostering a business-friendly environment.

Key discussions centered around streamlining regulatory processes through Government Process Reengineering, to strengthen trust-based governance through transformational measures.

While these measures would ensure “Ease of Doing Business”, deliberations were to take more proactive steps towards simplifying the regulatory regime for particularly benefiting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The discussions extensively involved rationalizing procedures and processes across areas such as change of Land Use, Building Plan approval, Construction Permits, Labour Reforms, Utilities and Permissions, and decriminalization of minor procedural offences, wherever feasible.

Considering underutilization and current restrictions in zoning norms with regard to setbacks, parking spaces, Floor Area Ratio in urban, rural industrial areas resulting loss of land, especially in industrial plots, a flexible zoning framework has been deliberated.

Encouraging commercial and affordable housing projects along Transit Oriented Development (TOD) corridors, rationalizing procedures related to change of land use and minimum road width in rural areas, GIS based Master Plans by Urban Development Authorities and land bank availability in industrial and private parks were discussed in detail.

Though the government has taken significant steps towards simplifying labour laws, further possibilities to rationalize conditions to employ women at night in factories and to work in all occupations needs to be taken, the meeting revealed.

Karnataka is also evaluating ways to reduce “Inspection Raj” and reduce compliance burden on departments by introducing Perpetual Licensing, real-time approvals, Self Certification/Third Party Certifications in G2B and G2C service delivery mechanisms to bring out efficiency, it was said.

Senior officials Uma Mahadevan, Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner, Rajender Kumar Kataria, Principal Secretary, Revenue, Dr. Selvakumar S, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industries, Deepa Cholan, Secretary, Urban Development, and Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner for Industrial Development, actively contributed to the dialogue.

A dedicated interaction session with industry associations ensured valuable industry feedback was integrated into the proposed reforms.

Industry associations also proactively participated in the dialogue and put forward suggestions on areas for improvement.

To strengthen its approach, Karnataka has constituted a state-level task force tasked to ensure swift implementation of these recommendations.