Regulations have become increasingly micro in nature: Arundhati Bhattacharya at JGU report release

Mumbai, April 28 (SocialNews.XYZ) “Regulations have become highly micro in nature in India. Instead, we need to have the kind of ecosystem that rewards innovation, encourages you to scale fast and fail fast, that you can get up again and try again,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce - South Asia and Former Chairman, State Bank of India.

She was speaking during the discussions at the Release of the Report on 'Regulatory Governance: The Scope, 2026', in Mumbai.

“Regulators need to develop a business development department. I have found that regulators are almost always behind the innovation cycle. Overregulation masks weak enforcement. Essentially, the enactment of the regulatory system is perfect. Where we fail is in the execution. Also, there are regulators now in every single field. It is also important that they keep in mind what is specifically required for a country like India to reach its potential growth. Growth today is paramount because it provides the ecosystem for people to create businesses and livelihoods. Regulators have a big role to play in this, and I hope that with the Report on Regulatory Governance and with the kind of interactions that you and the young population over here have, you will be able to nudge our regulators towards that goal,” Arundhati Bhattacharya said.

In his welcome Address, Prof (Dr) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, said, “We have been assessing how an academic institution can play an active role in creating both knowledge and perspective towards understanding the regulatory landscape. These will help create both legal and statutory, as well as policy reforms that can help the regulatory landscape, addressing some of the challenges that we face through regulations. The Centre for Regulatory Governance (CRG) established at the O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) focuses on strengthening the effectiveness, accountability, and transparency of regulatory institutions in India through research, dialogue, and capacity-building. The inaugural 2026 report, titled “Regulatory Governance꞉ The Scope”, does not merely set out an aspirational vision; it provides a rigorous analysis of regulatory governance, spanning virtually all sectors. A detailed analysis has been undertaken of the developments in the regulatory space to date, initiatives and reforms aimed at improving effectiveness and aligning with global standards, enriched by deep, insightful thoughts from students, experts and faculty. We hope this report will invite wider discussion and collaboration as we move from conception to implementation of a renewed regulatory vision for a Viksit Bharat by 2047.”

The Government of India, in the Union budgets and otherwise, has asserted the relevance of enhancing regulatory performance, as it has a direct nexus with ease of doing business and building trust-based governance. With a projected growth of over 8 per cent in the last quarter of 2025, and initiatives like Digital India, which have been actioned to meet the demands of the market, the growth of regulatory capacity is not only desirable but also an urgent imperative. For this purpose, a study of regulators, which brings together academics, practitioners and the public, from an interdisciplinary and comparative lens becomes crucial. This scoping report spans multiple regulatory regimes and is an attempt to understand the challenges faced by regulatory authorities and present the reforms undertaken by them to address those challenges.

Ajay Seth, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), said, “Regulations are essential for promoting competition, protecting consumers, and ensuring fair markets. Regulators also face challenges in balancing efficiency, stability, and distribution. In general, all regulatory steps should be guided by principles that are far-sighted. The way forward has to be through deregulation, as well as better regulations.”

During the presentation of the report, Prof Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, Director, Centre for Regulatory Governance, Jindal Global Law School, said that there was a strong need to understand how the regulators worked, as a system of study and that the new Centre plans to develop an Annual Report with its core being a Regulatory Effectiveness Index.

“This was much before Budget 2025-26 announced the setting up of a high-powered committee on regulators, and the Economic Survey 2025-26 discussed the need to set up institutions to study regulators. It would be developed by the faculty of the University, with the elements including a detailed analysis of India's key regulators and bring in cross-country comparisons to thus create a space for debate on the functionality and the effectiveness of the regulators. The project was helped right at the inception by the active support of each of the regulators we met, and we are deeply grateful to our Board of Advisers,” he said.

When regulators provide a stable investment environment for companies to invest, they automatically reduce the economic risk of failure. A company must meet the demands of technology, consumers, and politics, as markets around the world undergo transformation owing to these demands. To that end, it is the regulators that provide the long-term policy predictability, as it is comprised of experts who can gauge the needs of the markets in advance.

The discussion was followed by the Technical Session on the theme: Making Regulators Responsive to Citizens and included Archana Bhutani, Partner & India Regulatory Leader, Deloitte India; Pradeep Jayaraman, CEO, Adani Ports & SEZ; K.G Krishnamoorthy Rao, Managing Director & CEO Generali Central Insurance and was moderated by Prof. Avirup Bose, Professor, Jindal Global Law School.

During the discussion, it was opined that the growth of regulators can be attributed, in large part, to the growth of globalisation. As businesses crossed borders, it became necessary to formulate policies that provided certainty, especially for capital repatriation.

The panel provided a deeper insight into the regulatory models of the country, especially with new developments like machine learning, artificial intelligence and climate change and its impact on various sectors like energy, healthcare, power, telecommunications, fintech, and coal. In this age of AI, regulators must defend themselves and prove that they are strategic assets that are necessary for providing a better bargaining power to the specific sector and to citizens.

The Vote of Thanks was given by Prof Meghmala Mukherjee, Assistant Professor - Jindal Global Law School.

Source: IANS