BRIEF supported the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, in conducting the Measurement of Cost of Regulation (CoR) study across five eastern states—Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar. The study aimed to systematically quantify the time, financial, and procedural burden faced by businesses while complying with regulatory approvals and licences, and to identify opportunities to streamline processes and improve the ease of doing business.

The assessment covered 13 key regulatory services, including land allotment, building and factory plan approvals, fire and factory licences, environmental clearances, consents to establish and operate, and utility connections. BRIEF implemented a robust mixed-methods approach, combining large-scale quantitative surveys of enterprises with focus group discussions involving industry stakeholders and experts. The analysis examined time costs, substantive compliance costs, intermediary costs, statutory fees, inspection practices, and delay-related impacts, highlighting systemic inefficiencies, reliance on intermediaries, documentation challenges, and digital platform constraints.

Findings from the multi-state assessment provided comparative, evidence-based insights into regulatory performance across states and informed actionable recommendations on process simplification, digitisation, inter-departmental coordination, and service-level standardisation. The study contributed to DPIIT’s broader reform agenda by supporting data-driven policy decisions to reduce compliance burden and strengthen regulatory governance at the state and national levels.