Compliance, at its best, is the scaffolding of an orderly society, the shared code that binds institutions, enterprises and citizens in accountability. Yet, in India today, compliance often feels less like a foundation and more like a maze of obstacles.In the context of an evolving Indian economy, the question is not whether compliance is necessary, but how it is structured and the unintended consequences it produces. For policymakers, this is neither a call for deregulation nor a lament against governance, but a prompt to appreciate the full spectrum of compliance’s impact — both social and economic.