Analyse the role of trade and competition policy institutions in shaping India's ease-of-doing-business reforms since 2010.

Ease of doing business turns on the regulatory cost of entry, operation and exit for a firm. India's rise from 82nd to 57th on the Competere Foundation's Market Distortions Performance Index over 2010–2023 [1] indicates that reform was institution-driven, not episodic.

Trade policy institutions: easing the external margin

• The Ministry of Commerce & Industry, which released the report [1], anchors Foreign Trade Policy, DGFT licensing and port-clearance simplification — directly compressing trading-across-borders costs.
• DPIIT-led industrial delicensing and progressive FDI liberalisation removed entry barriers that are themselves counted as market distortions.
• The Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL), associated with the report [1], supplies legal capacity for WTO disputes and FTA negotiation, embedding rules-based predictability that investors price in.
• External validation continues: the World Bank's B-READY assessment of India is scheduled in 2026 [2].

Competition policy institutions: cleaning the internal margin

• The Competition Commission of India, operational since 2009 under the Competition Act, 2002, polices cartels, abuse of dominance and mergers — lowering the incumbency advantage that deters new firms.
• The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 added deal-value thresholds and a settlement–commitment framework, shortening approval timelines.
• Credible exit — via the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and NCLT — completes the entry-operation-exit cycle, freeing locked capital.

Limits of the institutional route

• Land, labour and electricity tariffs sit largely with states, so distortions such as subsidies and price controls persist below the national tier.
• Rankings capture de jure reform better than de facto compliance burden; enforcement capacity and litigation delays dilute gains.

Overall, trade institutions widened market access while competition institutions disciplined market conduct — jointly explaining a 25-place gain [1]. The next phase must shift from central legislation to cooperative-federal execution: state-level business reform action plans, subsidy rationalisation and faster tribunal disposal, converting India's "next growth frontier" [1] into measurable firm-level ease.