Free to Build

The idea

Picture a woman in Surat who wants to open a small textile unit. On Monday morning she registers her unit online and receives its own business PAN in minutes, linked to her personal PAN. That business PAN is now the unit's Business ID. By Monday afternoon she is in business. She certifies her own compliance online, and an inspector visits only if her firm is drawn in the yearly random audit.

Picture a shoe maker from Agra who wins a large export order. He buys a ready plot on idle government land, with power, water and road access already in place, and builds a factory for 5,000 workers. When orders shift, he can adjust his workforce, and every worker who leaves receives a month's wages for every year served, a month's notice and a training voucher.

Picture a factory worker in Chennai whose wages land in her bank account on time, each payment recorded against her PAN. Her provident fund and insurance are credited automatically, and her pay record helps her get a loan.

I believe Indians are among the most enterprising people in the world. Walk through any bazaar and you see it. The state's job is to clear the road, then trust them, while guarding safety and fairness with firm, fast rules. Trust first, verify by random audit, and keep the heavy hand for real wrongdoing.

We learned this lesson once already. In 1991 we ended the licence raj for industry, and the economy took off. This chapter carries that same freedom down to every shop, workshop and factory floor.

For the freedom to build, America is my benchmark. In Delaware a company can be formed the same day, and a failed business is wound up in about a year, leaving its founder free to try again. India matches the first within 1 year, moves toward the second, and publishes the gap that remains.

Why now

The burden is ready to lift. A typical firm today faces more than 69,000 compliance items, and lighter, trusted compliance could save small firms about ₹88,000 crore a year (estimate).

Justice can move at the speed of business. Enforcing a contract took about 1,445 days in 2020, and 90-day commercial courts turn that into one quarter.

Idle land can become jobs. Defence alone holds about 18 lakh acres, and selling just 50,000 acres of clear-title government land would raise about ₹50,000 crore (estimate).

And one simple duty helps the treasury too. A single 5% rate on every good alike would raise about ₹3.66 lakh crore, more than the ₹2.58 lakh crore collected in FY26 (estimate).

The big moves

Here is one clear path, step by step. The details belong to the mission heads, the states and industry.

1. First, make the business PAN the Business ID, with a same-day start. No new IDs are needed. A business's own PAN, the one every company, LLP, partnership and trust already holds, becomes its one Business ID, separate from the owner's personal PAN. A sole proprietor gets a free business PAN in minutes through instant e-PAN, linked to their personal PAN. That Business ID is used for every registration, return and inspection, in place of separate GST, TAN, company, shop and establishment numbers. Any activity outside a short critical list, such as mining, explosives and hazardous chemicals, starts the day you register (No licence raj). Any permission that remains is decided within a fixed time, for example 30 days, or is treated as granted. Closing is as simple as opening: a firm that has paid every debt, wage and severance closes online within 30 days, and an insolvent one follows the 180-day clock of Chapter 6, so an honest failure becomes a fresh start, as it is in America.

2. Next, trust firms and verify at random. Firms certify their own compliance online, and a small share, drawn by a published algorithm plus red-flag cases, is audited each year. Paper checks are faceless, and any site visit is by an inspector from another district, filmed and done in a day. Honest firms spend their time on customers.

3. Then, open idle government land as ready plots. Every ministry, public company and state lists its vacant land, and clear-title parcels are auctioned with power, water, roads and zoning already in place. Site work is done at the national rate card and paid after independent inspection.

4. Then, free hiring and give workers a better deal. Firms of any size can adjust their workforce without prior approval, and severance doubles to 30 days' wages per year of service, with a month's notice and a training voucher worth 15 days' wages (at least ₹10,000), the same amount India's 2020 labour code already sets aside for re-skilling, spendable at any certified course whose provider is paid in full only when the worker lands a job. Every wage is paid digitally against the worker's PAN, building a pay record that settles any wage claim quickly and credits provident fund, insurance and pension automatically.

5. Finally, make trade simple and fair. Every import pays one 5% duty, the same for every good, and trade-treaty partners already at 0% stay there. Every product, imported or Indian, meets one published quality standard. When dumped imports surge, the trade-remedies directorate acts on its own from customs data, and commercial disputes are settled in 90 days (Chapter 6).

Today vs the new way

Here is how doing business compares for founders, workers and the treasury.

The new way is simpler for every firm, better for every worker who moves on, and stronger for the treasury.

Proof it works

Deemed approval already works in India. Telangana's TS-iPASS Act of 2014 gives industrial approvals within 15 to 30 days and treats an approval as granted once the deadline passes.

America makes starting and failing easy. Delaware's corporations office files new companies within the hour, the same day or the next day, at the founder's choice of fee. The World Bank's last Doing Business survey, in 2020, found that a US insolvency took about 1 year, with creditors recovering about 81 cents on the dollar. Founders there treat an honest failure as experience and start again.

One flat tariff serves Chile well. Chile has applied one uniform import tariff of 6% to almost all goods since 2003.

Denmark pairs flexible hiring with security. Its "flexicurity" lets firms adjust their workforce easily while giving workers strong income support and retraining between jobs.

We are already lifting jail terms from business law. Jan Vishwas 2023 decriminalised 183 provisions, and the 2026 Act extends this to 717 provisions across 79 Acts.

What success looks like

• In the first 30 days: the Business ID is mandatory on every central portal, the vacant-land list is public and the first 100 auctions are announced.
• Within 1 year: every state and UT runs on the Business ID, and 90% of remaining approvals are decided within 30 days.
• Within 1 year: 500 ready plots are auctioned, the two labour amendments are in force, and PAN-linked wages are live for every employer.
• Within 1 year: the 5% import duty is in force, and the commercial court backlog shrinks by 10% every quarter.
• Within 1 year: every company is incorporated in one day, a debt-free firm closes online within 30 days, and India's times to start and to close are published each quarter beside America's.

Guardrail ideas

Ideas to start the conversation, for the builders, experts and the public to shape together.

• Workers are paid first. Severance is paid before any layoff takes effect, ranks with workmen's dues in insolvency, and binds directors personally outside it.
• High-risk activity gets careful review. Critical-list licences are decided within 90 days with written reasons, always by an explicit decision.
• Women work any shift in safety. Night shifts require written consent, safe transport, CCTV and a complaints committee, all in place first.
• Officials keep their deadlines. Each approval that is deemed granted because an officer let the clock run out counts against that officer's annual rating, with a personal fine.

FAQs

Q: Does freedom to lay off hurt workers?

A: Workers gain a better deal and more jobs. I understand why unions worry, and the answer is in the numbers: severance doubles, with full credit for past service, a month's notice and a training voucher, all paid before the layoff takes effect. Freedom to adjust is what lets large factories employing 5,000 to 20,000 people choose India.

Q: Without licences, how are people kept safe?

A: Safety is guarded where it matters most. Red-category industry, mining, hazardous chemicals, explosives and nuclear work still need a licence with an explicit decision. Everywhere else, random audits and heavy penalties for false certificates keep firms honest, and directors face prosecution if a false certificate causes death or serious injury.

Q: Does easy closure let owners walk away from what they owe?

A: Honest founders get a fresh start, and everyone they owe is paid first. A firm closes the quick way only after its directors sign that every debt, wage and severance is paid, a false declaration keeps them personally liable, and a firm that cannot pay goes through the court-run insolvency clock of Chapter 6.

Q: Will the 5% duty raise fuel prices or expose Indian makers to dumping?

A: Every importer pays one fair, simple rate, and Indian makers are protected by fast trade remedies. On crude oil the duty adds about ₹2.2 a litre (estimate). Dumping is caught automatically from customs data and answered with a duty equal to the proven margin.

The detailed blueprint for this chapter, a starting draft for the mission heads, industry and the private sector to refine, is in the Implementation Annex.