Page 43 - NIS English 1-15 June, 2026

Cover Story

Years
of Vikas Yatra

The reform initiative commenced with the
Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act,
World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing
2023. This Act amended 42 Central Acts. Business Ranking 2020’
183 Provisions were decriminalized; 2019 142nd Position

monetary penalties and other
administrative enforcement
mechanisms were introduced to replace
imprisonment as a form of punishment. Has leaped 79

2014 63rd Position places.

The definition of MSMEs has been revised.
MSME loans have been linked to external
benchmarks. Collateral-free loans of up to ₹10
lakh are now available for Micro and Small
Enterprises. For MSMEs, the loan limit for
working capital requirements—up to ₹5 crore—
has been fixed at a minimum of 20% of their
estimated annual turnover.

Ease of Doing Business Facilitated
by the Jan Vishwas Act

Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026
784 Provisions across 79 Central

Acts spanning 23 Ministries
were amended.
n 317 provisions were converted from fines to civil
penalties. India has witnessed a transformative
n In 158 provisions, fines were completely removed. shift in its culture of governance over
n In 113 provisions, the punishment of both the past decade. When decisions
imprisonment and fines was removed, and civil are taken on time, coordination
penalties were introduced.
n In 57 provisions, both imprisonment and fines were is effective, and accountability is
eliminated. established, the pace of government
n In 63 provisions, a provision for a warning/notice operations naturally accelerates.
was introduced for the first offense. The impact of this becomes directly
n In 17 provisions, the term of imprisonment was visible in the lives of citizens.
reduced, while in 29 provisions, imprisonment was
completely removed. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
n In 17 provisions, the facility for settling cases through
mutual agreement (compounding) was introduced.
n In 9 other provisions, imprisonment was replaced
with civil penalties, the nature of imprisonment
was rationalized, or the scope of the offense was
narrowed.

June 1-15, 2026 || NEW INDIA SAMACHAR 41