Edelweiss Mutual Fund’s Managing Director and CEO, Radhika Gupta, expressed her thoughts on U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order during a statement made on Sunday, February 2. This order mandates that for every new rule introduced by any agency, ten existing regulations must be eliminated. Gupta remarked that this initiative will not increase compliance costs, as it allows for the removal of outdated regulations to make way for new ones.
She described the approach as “brilliant,” emphasizing that it keeps regulations relevant without adding to compliance expenses by preventing the accumulation of old rules. In her post on platform X, Gupta likened the situation to a mother instructing her child to discard old shoes before purchasing a new pair, highlighting that this strategy also helps manage “cupboard space” and government spending on compliance.
On January 31, 2025, President Trump signed the executive order as part of a 10-to-1 deregulation initiative. This directive requires agencies proposing new rules to identify at least ten existing regulations to eliminate. The White House stated that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget will oversee the standardized measurement and estimation of regulatory costs. This action aims to counter what the Trump administration describes as the “job-killing and inflation-driving regulatory blitz of the Biden Administration,” which they claim has imposed $1.7 trillion in costs on Americans. The administration argues that overregulation stifles entrepreneurship, burdens small businesses, limits consumer choice, hinders innovation, and infringes on the freedoms of American citizens.