Strengthening Anti-bribery And Anti-corruption Framework In India's Construction And Infrastructure Sector

1. INTRODUCTION

Ease of doing business in India is at an all-time high. However, organizations are required to navigate a multitude of regulatory compliances in order to operate effectively, which can be particularly cumbersome and onerous for organizations unfamiliar with the complex framework of central and state-level norms. A report from Teamlease earlier this year titled "Compliance 3.0" had, for instance, noted that businesses in India are "governed by 1,536 acts and rules, 69,233 compliances and 6,618 filings".¹ These figures represent the regulatory burden across licensing, labour laws, tax compliance, environmental clearances, and sectorspecific regulations that construction and infrastructure companies must navigate daily. Though there may have been some improvement in the situation, those figures nonetheless indicate the scale and extent of the challenge of regulation. Compounding this challenge is the pressure to expand and diversify in an intensely