The poor land records and lack of access to these records adversely impact both the land markets in India and financialisation of land assets. The digitisation of land records is a critical first step in addressing this issue. In this context, NCAER’s Land Records and Services Index (N-LRSI) has the potential of offering a reality check to the public on the ongoing digitisation efforts and highlighting matters requiring greater attention by policymakers. The N-LRSI study also highlights the potential benefits of the government’s Digital India mission. One of the positive outcomes of the Index is that it will encourage competition among States, which will foster an improvement in the digitisation of land records.

In this policy brief, authors discuss the key drivers that account for this recent improvement shown by many States and UTs. The discussion is mainly focused on the digitisation of land records and the registration process.