In what can be called a historic moment for India, the country leapfrogging 30 ranks finally made it to top 100 on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking 2018, but more needs to be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he wants to fulfil his dream of taking India into top 30. As World Bank, which released it 2018 edition of ‘Doing Business’ report, lauded India on eight out of ten fronts and cheering India as “top ten improvers”.
India, with 37 reforms not only made the big leap, but also proved out to be South Asia’s top achiever; but, the World Bank, said India still lags in three key areas: Starting a Business, Enforcing Contracts, and Dealing with Construction Permits. The World Bank said that India has made major reforms in these three areas as well but needed more effort to steer Indian even further on the rankings.
Starting a Business: The World Bank said that India has made a significant improvement by reducing the time needed to register a new business to 30 days from 127 days in the last 15 years, but the procedure is still cumbersome. The local entrepreneurs need to go as many as 12 procedures to start a business in Mumbai, the World Bank said in the report.
Enforcing Contract: On the front of enforcing contracts, the World Bank said, India has gone down as compared to previous years. India, which used to take 1,420 days to enforce a contract 15 years ago, now takes 1,445 days.
Dealing with Construction Permits: The World Bank said India has reduced the number of days taken to provide construction permits significantly but more needs to be done as India is ranked poorly on this parameter.
India has been performing well on three fronts — protecting minority investors, getting credit and getting electricity. The country’s corporate laws and security regulations have been recognised “highly advance” by the World Bank, which has given 4th rank under protecting minority investors front, up from last year’s 13th rank.
The World Bank ranking is based on its study of the system in the two cities of Mumbai and New Delhi. The ease of doing business is an index created by the World Bank to measure regulations directly affecting businesses and overall environment. The rankings are based on ten parameters — starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.