India has stepped up 14 places to take the 63rd position among 190 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking which was released on Thursday after the announcement of numerous economic reforms by the Narendra Modi-led government.
India was at the 77th place among a total of 190 countries in the last year’s ranking, which is a gain of 23 places. The report evaluates enhancement in the ease of doing business environment in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, which also shows that company formation in India is much simpler now.
“Sustained business reforms over the past several years has helped India jump 14 places to move to 63rd position in this year’s global ease of Doing Business rankings. India put in place four new business reforms during the past year and earned a place in among the world’s top ten improvers for the third consecutive year,” the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2020 study said.
The newest reforms are in the Doing Business areas of Setting up a Business, Managing the Construction Permits, Handling the Trade Across Borders and also Resolving Insolvency.
In Doing Business 2020 report, India along with other top-gaining countries executed a total of 59 regulatory reforms in the years 2018/19—which accounted for almost one-fifth of the total reforms recorded globally.
Junaid Ahmad, World Bank’s Country Director in India said that India’s remarkable headway in the Doing Business rankings over the last few years is an incredible accomplishment, specifically for an economy which is so enormous and complex. Special attention given by the country’s top leadership, and the relentless attempts made to propel the business reforms agenda, both at the central and the state level, aided India to make such significant improvements. Now, the focus should be carrying on with this trend to maintain and further improve this ranking.
Doing Business recognises the 10 economies that have progressed the most on the ease of doing business after executing the regulatory reforms. In Doing Business 2020 report, the 10 top improving nations are Saudi Arabia, Togo, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kuwait, India, China, and Nigeria.
The founding of a modern insolvency regime in the year 2016 under the comprehensive policy to reorganise corporate law paved the path for steady upsurge in the number of reorganizations, in spite of some implementation-related challenges. Consequently, the overall rate of recovery for creditors moved up drastically from 26.5 to 71.6 cents on the dollar. “India now is by far the best performer in South Asia on this component and does better than the average for OECD high-income economies,” it said.
Concluding the procedures necessitated building a warehouse now costs only 4 percent of the total warehouse value. Creating quality control measures has also improved, and now only six economies globally have a score, which is more than India’s 14.5 out of 15 on this index.
Importing and exporting has become much simpler for companies for the fourth year in a row. With the newest reforms, India now stands at the 68th position worldwide on this indicator and does considerably better than the regional average. The time needed for the logistical processes such as exporting and importing goods is also now significantly reduced.
Doing business ranking is constructed on quantitative indicators on regulation for setting up a new business, handling construction permits, getting facilities like electricity, registering the property, protecting minority investors, getting credit, paying taxes, doing trade across borders, applying contracts and also resolving insolvency.
