Woking on Jan Vishwas bill 3 to further improve business environment: Goyal

After decriminalising a number of minor offences under various laws, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the government is working on a third edition of the Jan Vishwas bill that will focus on simplifying processes and reducing intimidating forms to make doing business easier and more comfortable.

After decriminalising a number of minor offences under various laws, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the government is working on a third edition of the Jan Vishwas bill that will focus on simplifying processes and reducing intimidating forms to make doing business easier and more comfortable. On April 2, Parliament passed the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, to amend 784 provisions in 79 central laws for decriminalising and rationalising minor offences to further improve the business environment and check harassment of people. The bill has rationalised over 1,000 offences by amending these provisions. Similarly, in 2023, the Jan Vishwas law was rolled out to promote ease of business by decriminalising minor offences through amendments in 183 provisions of 42 acts. ''We are now working on a Jan Vishwas Bill number 3, where possibly, we'll go beyond decriminalising laws, (and) look at simplification of processes and procedures, reducing compliance burden, reducing intimidating forms to make the life of businesses, better and more comfortable,'' Goyal said at the World Bank Group's workshop on Business Ready (B-READY) framework here. He said that through these measures, the government is making laws that are more contemporary and relevant to India in the 21st century. The ministry emphasised the need to make the entry and exit of businesses easy. ''And now we have another 100 industrial parks planned under the Bhavya Scheme,'' he said. On international trade, Goyal said India has finalised nine free trade agreements in the last three and a half years. ''In the next 2 years. I expect at least another 6 or 7 more FTAs... collectively, covering 50 developed, rich and prosperous countries,'' he said. Without naming the country, Goyal said he held discussions this evening with a minister of a country, with whom he was meeting for the first time in his life. ''And in the meeting that we have decided to immediately study our two economic situations... prepare terms of reference and in July, we'll be having a joint economic and trade council (JETCO) meeting where we hope to sign terms of reference for another Free Trade Agreement,'' he added. According to his social media post, the minister held a meeting with Gabriela Sommerfeld Rosero, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Moblet of Ecuador, and discussed ways to boost the two-way commerce and investments.