India Ranks 77th On World Bank’s Ease Of Doing Business Report

In the latest Doing Business Report (DBR, 2019) by the World Bank, India has recorded a jump of 23 positions against its rank of 100 in 2017 as it reaches 77th position, among 190 countries assessed by the World Bank.

Last year, India jumped 30 places ahead and has recorded jump of 65 positions in last four years.

“With 13 reforms between them, China and India — two of the world’s largest economies — are among the 10 top improvers,” the World Bank said in its report.

“Ease of doing business is to maximise the governance with minimum government personnel and procedures,” said finance minister Arun Jaitley.

He identified registering property, starting a business, insolvency, enforcement of contracts and taxation as the key areas of improvement for India and said: “If we improve on these areas in a focused way, getting up to 50th rank is not out of reach”.

Interestingly, Djibouti and India are the only economies to make the list of 10 top improvers for the second consecutive year in the 190-country ranking.

The World Bank report noted that India has improved its rank in 6 out of 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices (Distance to Frontier score) on 7 out of the 10 indicators. But, the most dramatic improvements have been registered in the indicators related to ‘Construction Permits’ and ‘Trading Across Borders’.

The important features of India’s performance this year are:

• The World Bank has recognised India as one of the top improvers for the year
• India has recorded the highest improvement in two years by any large country since 2011 in the Doing business assessment by improving its rank by 53 positions
• As a result of continued performance, India is now placed at first position among South Asian countries as against 6th in 2014
• India now ranks in the top 25 in the world on three indicators — getting electricity, getting credit and protecting minority investor

Earlier in July 2018, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and World Bank jointly released ease of doing business index for states, wherein Andhra Pradesh scored the top position followed by Telangana and Haryana.

Going forward, India is been taking up the challenge of keeping up with the global trends be it in business scenario or innovation.

To further take up the charge of making India a truly global competitor, the commerce and industry ministry is setting up three task forces:

• Suggesting how India can become a $5 Tn economy
• Planning the use of big data and artificial intelligence in government processes
• Chalking out the country’s response to the changing dynamics of trade.

Further, the committees are also helping generate innovative ideas to prepare the country for Industry 4.0.

As India continues to bet extensively on new age innovation and technology along with a push for growth in various segments, the Ease of Doing Business Ranking shows the way forward for the country.

[The development was reported by PTI.]