Keynote address by Professor (Dr) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O P Jindal Global University, on the release of Centre for Regulatory Governance (CRG) report, titled "Regulatory Governance: The Scope". 

(Hosted in Mumbai, April 24, 2026)

First of all, I thank all the students, distinguished guests, faculty members and members from the media who are present here. 

Having started the day with a national seminar on artificial intelligence and its governance interconnecting law and society and technology, now, we are quickly moving into the next part of today's event.

I have great pleasure in welcoming our distinguished chief guest, Ms Arundhati Bhattacharya. Ms Bhattacharya is no stranger to this city or the world that all of us are part of. She is currently the Chairperson and CEO, Salesforce, South Asia, and former Chairman, State Bank of India. I am also deeply grateful to my colleague, Professor Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, who is the Founding Director of the Center for Regulatory Governance (CRG) at Jindal Global Law School of O P Jindal Global University.

I thank my dear friend, Mr Siddharth Shahani, Co-Founder & Executive President, ATLAS SkillTech University, for having partnered with us here at the University to host this event.

For those of you who may not be familiar with our university, we are part of a new emerging ecosystem of private universities. Our university was established in the year 2009 through a philanthropic initiative of our Founding Chancellor and benefactor, Mr Naveen Jindal. The journey began in a modest manner with just 100 students and 10 faculty members and 20 administrative staff. We started with one school - the Law school, in the year 2009. Over the last 16 years, we have risen to 16,000 plus students from 164 countries. The number of faculty members has risen to more than 1,200 and administrative staff to nearly 3,000.

The journey that has brought us to where we are today, requires enormous engagement across different constituencies including our faculty members, students and staff. I am very delighted that we are here, today, partnering with ATLAS SkillTech University in doing some of these initiatives. We are also particularly grateful to Ms Bhattacharya for accepting our invitation for a very important initiative that the CRG has done with the publication of the report that scopes the regulatory landscape of India.

Be it in the field of AI, Finance or almost every aspect - regulations play a very significant role. We have always been thinking that we should assess, understand and develop a scholarly understanding with the regulators. We have also been exploring how an academic institution, a Law school, can play an active role in creating both knowledge and insights to help shape legal and policy reforms. It would help address some of the challenges that we face through regulations.

Amidst profound economic uncertainty, it is absolutely important for the regulatory landscape to provide clarity, certainty and even a bit of predictability as well. We must diligently work towards understanding the impact of regulations in the world of finance, AI and technology - the primary drivers of our collective future. I am confident this book provides the needed clarity, while helping engage in conversations surrounding the future of regulation.

One of the remarkable things about the journey of India since 1947 is that, not only did we begin the journey with our Constitution, but there has also been a persistent commitment to institutional reforms. The most contemporary aspect of that includes the emergence of a regulatory state and the need for regulatory reforms to ensure the legal burden is shared effectively rather than resting solely on the judiciary.

Now, new institutions have emerged and are fulfilling different sets of responsibilities. In that context, it's important for us to constantly reimagine the nature of law and regulations. This report effectively examines how the system can evolve to address the challenges that the world of business and others are facing.

I again wish to congratulate the entire team of CRG who have painstakingly worked for the publication of this report. It is a deep study; yet it aims to connect policy makers with business leaders and obviously with the citizens. This is obviously a larger reflection of what the Hon’ble Finance Minister of India, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman had said in her previous budget, where she talked about the need for the next generation of regulatory reforms and how it should look like. I am sure that this report will also help a deeper and a more substantive analysis of individual sectors in which the regulatory governance is going to impact the future. This will be one of the continuums in which many more reports and publications are expected from the CRG. We hope to share the copy of the report as well so that students who are present here, and others can also get a sense of it.

With those words, once again, I want to thank all of you for being part of this conversation. We look forward to hearing the reflections and perspectives of our Chief Guest, Ms Bhattacharya. Her extensive experience of working both within and outside the government gives her a unique perspective of how regulation has impacted business, finance and indeed the aspirations of the people. Thank you very much.