new delhi in its three years in office the modi government has scrapped more than a thousand laws some dating to the raj that detailed rules for killing elephants and how to deal with spy pigeons but the several laws that have been amended and the fresh ones that have been passed reflect the governments intent to quicken the pace of economic change and extend its political constituency to the underprivileged apart from the countrys middle classesthe list is formidable from gst and the real estate regulation act to benami transactions prohibition act and undisclosed foreign income and assets act to new laws for recovery of debt insolvency and bankruptcy these are not laws that merely tinker with the status quo their impact is expected to be gamechanginginitially lawmaking proved more difficult than may have been anticipated after pm narendra modi led the nda to 336 seats in the lok sabha an unlikely opposition coalition of the congress trinamool left sp and bsp used bjps lack of majority in the upper house to ensure bills passed by ls were referred to select committees important reform legislation like gst marked timeit took months of hard bargaining and resorting to parliamentary stratagem of terming certain legislations example aadhaar as money bills before lawmaking began to gather paceby and by laws that are expected to significantly alter how business is conducted and politics is practised were passed as bjp consolidated its dominance in state elections after setbacks in delhi and bihar in 2015with an eye to the political imperative of social equity the government moved on economic legislation linked to its stated objectives to speed up business the sweep of legislations has been ambitious looking to alter both social and economic behaviour besides the highprofile new laws mentioned earlier there have been several others such as the ones for setting up dedicated commercial benches in court and making the auction of coal and minerals mandatory the rights of persons with disabilities is now law while the maternity benefits bill is pending approval as is the legislation to grant constitutional status to the national commission for backward classesbjps threefourth majority in up and uttarakhand besides stealing a win from congress in manipur and goa smoothened the passage of four gstrelated bills in parliaments budget session after the rajya sabha had passed the gst constitutional amendment bill last august over two years after the modi government assumed officethe laws prioritised by nda reveal its priorities early in its tenure the government altered the juvenile justice act to provide for teens in the 1618 age group to be treated as adults in heinous offenses this was in response to a public outcry over an underage offender in the nirbhaya gangrapemurder case being given a mild sentencethe government also brought in the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes prevention of atrocities amendment act to provide tougher punishmentif changes in juvenile law point to a tougher line on crime amendments to the sc and st act incorporate specific