The promise of what we do

Our mission is to lift a billion Indians into prosperity. This will only follow from the economic freedom to earn a livelihood and to create jobs. The Government of India’s ease of doing business initiative is a great start in this direction. But we need to do more.

More than 1,536 laws across India thwart economic freedom for millions of workers and entrepreneurs. Our laws today prevent women from entering the job market, restrict workers from securing higher wages, and penalise enterprises that want to grow. If we are to deliver on the goals of higher per capita income, more non-farm jobs, and greater women’s labour force participation, we must systematically remove redundant lakshman-rekhas on entrepreneurs and workers.  

We have to persuade political leaders and administrative functionaries, particularly in states, to embark on liberalisation 2.0. The 1991 reforms, i.e. liberalisation 1.0, lifted 350 million people out of poverty, but 500 million are still languishing. We need 10% annual growth for the next decade, so the average Indian can raise her annual income to $12,000 from the current $2,000. Without greater economic freedom, this will remain a pipe dream. 

Persuading states to embark on this prosperity journey requires identifying what needs to change in regulation, building consensus on brick by brick reform, and making progress iteratively. We need deep knowledge combined with rolled up sleeves. This is the promise of what we do. Iti in Sanskrit means “in this manner”; at Prosperiti, we aim to show the way for India to prosper. 

Our journey thus far

Prosperiti builds state capacity to increase economic freedom in India. We started our journey three years ago with the objective of lifting a billion people into prosperity. We are on a mission to catalyse a series of 1991-like reforms at the state level so that entrepreneurs can create more jobs and workers can earn more. 
We produce insights on state-level regulation, identify opportunities for reforms, help build policy consensus, and assist in implementation. We release issue-specific State of Regulation reports and bi-weekly analyses to help states make informed decisions. In partner states, we provide design, drafting, and execution support for accelerating regulatory reforms. 

We are a support engine helping states to reset their regulatory framework so ordinary Indians traverse the journey from poverty to prosperity. Of all the areas that states regulate, for the near term, our focus is to reform labour regulations and building regulations. In partner states, we identify line-by-line corrections in law and regulation and offer specific reform advice on these two issues. To help each state implement the reforms, we apply knowledge of India’s public administration, facilitate stakeholder consultations, forecast intended and unintended consequences, support legislative/scheme redrafting, and develop metrics to measure impact.

We have thus far supported three state governments in their journey to prosperity. In Punjab, we have worked with the government to draft state labour Rules and introduce revised building regulation standards. In Uttar Pradesh, we are assisting the Department of Labour to introduce reforms to Factories Act, Shops Act, and Contract Labour Acts. In Tamil Nadu, we assisted the MSME department to draft a chapter on ease of doing business for the Expert Committee MSME Report. We have also provided research input to the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) on labour regulations.