FROM SINGLE WINDOW TO SINGLE DAY — REVISITED (2026)
An Advisory to the Government of India, NITI Aayog, and the Chief Ministers of all States
Hemen Parekh | 16 June 2026 (First proposed: 20 September 2015 — see prior art below)
( A ) THE TRIGGER — Gujarat Raises the Bar
On 16 June 2026, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel unveiled the Viksit Gujarat Industrial Policy 2026, targeting ₹10 lakh crore of investment over five years on the road to a USD 3.5 trillion State economy by 2047.
Its standout feature is a "Choose Your Incentive" model — letting an investor mix capital subsidy, interest subsidy and power-tariff reimbursement to suit the project. It identifies 21 thrust sectors, pours special incentives into R&D centres and startups (a ₹25,000–30,000/month sustenance allowance), and adds Project T.H.R.I.V.E. to relocate industry into planned estates.
This is a fine policy. But notice what it competes on: the size of the cheque, not the speed of the clearance. Incentives are the easy part. The hard part — the part investors actually lose sleep over — is time to approval.
( B ) THE PRIOR THINKING — My Blog of 20 September 2015
Eleven years ago, in "From Single Window to Single Day?" ( https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/from-single-window-to-single-day.html ), I tracked the race that "Make in India" had already set off among the States:
| State (2015) | Promise then |
|---|---|
| Tamil Nadu | Approve all proposals in 30 days |
| Andhra Pradesh | Online single-window clearance in 21 days |
| Telangana | Single-window in 15 days (IT projects: 12 days) — with a ₹1,000/day fine on the officer who delays |
| Maharashtra | 7 days, failing which the application is deemed approved |
And then I asked the one question no Chief Minister has yet answered:
"Can we look forward to one of the Chief Ministers coming forward to announce — 'We will clear all investment proposals in ONE DAY'?"
I was not dreaming. I had seen it done. In that same blog I recorded a true incident from my L&T days: Mohan Pherwani (VP–Planning, L&T) made a JV presentation to the Singapore Development Authority in the morning, was shown plots in the afternoon — and by evening the hotel receptionist handed him a letter that confirmed the JV, allotted the chosen plot, and enclosed a cheque for Singapore's equity share. One day. One desk. Done.
That is the benchmark. "Single Day," not merely "Single Window."
( C ) THE FRESH MANDATE — PM Modi's Own Exhortation
The Prime Minister has himself now closed the loop. At the 5th National Conference of Chief Secretaries (Dec 2025) he urged every State to make Ease of Doing Business a top priority and to draft 1-, 2-, 5- and 10-year actionable plans with technology-based monitoring. At the NITI Aayog Governing Council (11 June 2026), he again pressed States for measurable 100-day and five-year targets, stressing that transparency, good governance and ease of doing business decide where investment lands.
His standing instruction across a decade has been consistent: align our procedures with global best practices. An Advisory that does exactly that is not a deviation — it is obedience to the brief.
( D ) THE GLOBAL BENCHMARK — What Singapore Teaches
In my 2015 note I called Singapore "rank #1, many years in a row." The record bears it out — and sharpens the lesson:
- Singapore held Rank #1 in the World Bank's Doing Business report for roughly a decade, through the 2016 edition.
- It then held Rank #2 (behind New Zealand) through the 2017–2020 editions — unbroken top-2 for the entire life of the index.
- The World Bank retired the Doing Business index in 2021 and is replacing it with its successor, B-READY (Business Ready).
The point is not the trophy. Singapore never won on subsidies — it won on certainty and speed. The cheque-in-the-evening story is the operating principle behind a top-2 rank sustained for 15 straight years.
And lest we forget our own journey: India climbed from 142 (2014) → 100 → 77 → 63 (2020) — proof that when we decide to compress process, we move fast. The next frontier is no longer the rank (the report is gone); it is the clock.
( E ) THE ADVISORY — Three Asks
1. Add a "Time Guarantee" to every State Industrial Policy. Gujarat's "Choose Your Incentive" is excellent. Pair it with a "Choose Your Clock" — a binding maximum clearance time, published, audited, and enforced. A subsidy you may or may not need; a fast clearance every investor needs.
2. Pilot a "Single-Day Green Channel" for pre-vetted, compliant projects. Not every project, but a class of them — standard sectors, clean compliance record, plots in notified estates — should be eligible for same-day, single-desk allotment-plus-approval, on the Singapore SDA model. Let one State plant the flag: "Cleared in ONE DAY."
3. Make delay personally costly — and approval automatic. Telangana's 2015 idea (₹1,000/day penalty on the delaying officer) and Maharashtra's deemed-approval rule were ahead of their time. Codify both nationally: beyond the published clock, the application stands approved, and the delay is logged against a named desk. Accountability is the cheapest reform there is.
( F ) WHY THIS, WHY NOW
Eleven years ago this was a question mark. Today three forces make it an open goal:
- a flagship State policy (Gujarat 2026) that has the nation's attention,
- a Prime Ministerial mandate to adopt global best practice and set hard timelines, and
- a proven foreign template (Singapore) and a proven domestic capability (142 → 63).
The recipe is complete. What remains is the decision. The first Chief Minister to say "ONE DAY" — and mean it — will not need to offer the biggest incentive. They will be the incentive.
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Make Yourself Heard. Forward this Advisory — with your own improvements — to your State Industrial Department, NITI Aayog (ceo-niti@nic.in), and your Chief Minister's office.
— Hemen Parekh / hemenparekh.ai / IndiaAGI.ai
