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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026

 

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--NITI Aayog Gauba: Next step of reforms is to liberate industry
--CONTEXT: NITI Aayog Member Rajiv Gauba speaking at Global Fintech Fest 2026
--NITI Aayog Gauba: Centre, state must work together to boost deregulation
--NITI Aayog Gauba: Nudging states with deregulation taskforce to up reforms
--NITI Aayog Gauba: States must work on land use reforms
--NITI Aayog Gauba: Fintech ecosystem democratised fincl instruments
--NITI Aayog Gauba: Credit, insurance needs to go much more deeper 
--NITI Aayog Gauba: Regulation must promote more competition

 

MUMBAI – The deregulation committee, headed by Cabinet Secrtary T.V. Somanathan, has already formed an architecture that promotes simpler rules and regulation for industry, including taking down the need for lincences to do business across industries and keeping it limited to only a few, NITI Aayog Member Rajiv Gauba said Thursday. Businesses must require a licence only if they are dealing in business that are linked to national security or for activities which pose serious risks to human rights or environment, he said. "Otherwise, you should have registration with automatic non-subjective yes or no," Gauba said at the Global fintech fest 2026. 

 

"The next generation reform has to be to replace the industry and citizens at large from this cycle of so-called rules, regulations, and permissions...So our task is to scrutinise the maze of laws, regulations, and rules and test them against the touchstone of trust-based governance," he said. 

 

The government had set up the deregulation panel in 2025 to simplify the environment in which India's industry works in. The panel has recommended easing land-use reforms by suggesting changes to the Floor Area Ratio, or FAR, also called Floor Space Index in cities like Mumbai, which is the numeric limit that dictates the total maximum floor area than can be used on a given plot of land. 

 

According to Gauba, the panel has suggested changes to increase the floor area available for businesses, hotels, and hospitals, which will improve the overall efficiency of the available land. State governments and municipal corporations have a huge role to play in this regard, Gauba said. Together, if states and Centre work closely to make deregulation a success, it will eventually lead to cheaper hotels, and other such infrastructure. 

 

To be sure, Gauba said that the deregulation panel is working on making central norms easier, which will have to be complemented by states who will have to make changes to state regulations. The deregulation taskforce has also nudged states to work in this direction, he said. 

 

DEMOCRATISING FINTECH

Lauding India's success in leveraging fintech and digital public infrastructure to boost financial inclusion, Gauba said that more remains to be done. According to him, fintech has helped democratise financial instruments, taking them closer to the last mile. 

 

However, more needs to be done to take credit to the ones who have actual need for it and to take insurance coverage a few notches deeper, he said. 

 

He also said that a key part of regulation and reform is also to ensure how can citizens are protected, especially in the times of rapid fintech innovation. "It is built on trust, and it's built on rules, and equal parts allow for innovation, allow for sandbox environments, allow for experimentation," Gauba said pitching regulation that promotes competition.   End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta and Sagar Sen

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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