As I see it the license raj, the way it functioned or failed to do so, is a straight- line development of the Indian Civil Service under the actual raj, many of the people and their habits were the same, and the ICS was the way it was because it was set up that way- to be intensely, immensely bureaucratic, with virtually everything possible accounted for, with virtually no initiative permitted, that was essentially the design brief. Corruption actually improved it, supposedly.
The best chance to prevent that is indeed, I reckon, 1814, before the cultural arteries harden after Waterloo, and you still have redcoats wandering around marvelling at everything, the narrow- minded arrogance that bred much of the troubles of the mid century hasn't yet set in, and the ICS and it's children like the permit raj are not yet inevitable.
What, only post 1947? Hm.