Niti Aayog’s Rajiv Gauba advocates for targeted, risk-based regulation to sustain India’s rapid growth and realisation of Viksit Bharat by 2047, emphasising the need for better coordination and deregulation amid a complex geopolitical environment.
India needs a sharper move towards lighter, more targeted regulation if it is to sustain the fast growth needed to realise Viksit Bharat by 2047, Niti Aayog member Rajiv Gauba said at the 5th Kautilya Economic Conclave. The former Cabinet Secretary argued that policymakers should not frame the issue as a choice between rules and growth, but as a search for rules that contain risk without choking innovation, competition or investment.
Gauba said the state should be strict where dangers are high and restrained where they are low, while remaining predictable in both cases. According to the Niti Aayog and the Press Information Bureau, he said regulation ought to be calibrated to the scale and consequences of the risk involved, with regulators first asking whether new intervention is truly needed before moving into fast-changing sectors.
He also pressed for better coordination among regulators, warning that businesses increasingly operate across overlapping sectors and technologies. That, he said, raises the risk of duplication, conflicting obligations and gaps in oversight. Gauba added that regulatory independence must be matched by accountability, with transparent decision-making, clear procedures, review mechanisms and performance scrutiny if public confidence is to be maintained.
His comments come as India faces a more complex policy environment shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, shifting trade routes and the growing use of tariffs, export controls and investment restrictions as strategic tools. Gauba also pointed to the pace of change in artificial intelligence, cyber security and digital technologies, saying institutions often struggle to keep up. In later remarks reported by The Economic Times and Mint, he went further by describing deregulation and reduced regulatory friction as central to India’s next wave of reforms, aligning the message with the government’s Jan Vishwas, or trust-based governance, push.
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