Irasis AcharyaIndia’s economic story since 2014 is largely a story of predictability. For decades, entrepreneurs and investors saw India’s promise weakened by its processes: permissions, discretionary approvals, and rules that seemed to change with access and influence. The Modi government’s key achievement has been to reduce that uncertainty, and the shift is visible in hard numbers.When Narendra Modi took office in 2014, India ranked 142nd of 190 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. By 2020, it had climbed to 63, a 79-place jump driven by reforms in insolvency, taxation, permits, and cross-border trade. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code created a clearer system for resolving business failure. Digitised approvals and single-window clearances reduced discretion, delay, and rent-seeking. GST followed the same principle, replacing overlapping state and central levies with one national tax framework.Mining shows the same movement from discretion to rules. The 2015 amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act introduced the District Mineral Foundation, ensuring part of mining revenue flowed to affected districts. Auction-based allocation replaced discretionary allotment, while the National Mineral Exploration Trust and tougher penalties for illegal mining changed incentives that had enabled earlier abuses.The 2026 MMDR Amendment, cleared by Parliament on August 13, 2026, extends this reform logic by creating a uniform national framework for taxing mineral rights and mineral-bearing land. Read with the 2015 DMF reform, it reflects a consistent direction: transparent rules instead of fragmented, ad hoc arrangements. For yuva Bharat, this predictability matters because jobs depend on whether capital is confident enough to invest in factories, mines, and exploration ventures.The contrast with Odisha before 2014 is stark. Despite rising global iron ore prices, royalty and pricing frameworks were not updated in time by the BJD state government or the UPA-led Centre, which controlled mineral rules under the unamended MMDR Act. The Justice M.B. Shah Commission found illegal and unaccounted mining worth about Rs 59,200 crore. A later CAG audit estimated losses above Rs 22,000 crore from 2015 to 2022. For Odisha, reform means revenue for hospitals, roads, and tribal districts—not crocodile tears or delayed accountability.(The author is MLA, Bhatli)