World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report 2018:

9:30 PM: Rita Ramalho, Acting Director for World Bank’s Global Indicators Group said, This is a major major jump for India. India has improved a lot (this year), but there’s still room for improvement, So, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as a nice place to do business yet, but definitely is in the right direction to become a nice place. It is much easier than it was two years ago.

9:23 PM: Among BRICS countries, Russia tops the list with 35th position, followed by China which has retained its ranking at the 78th place for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, noting that India made a very big effort in the past two years, the World Bank said the results now reflect those initiatives.

9:15 PM: Legislative, administrative and policy measures taken by the government would help in further improving India’s ranking in ease of doing business: Suresh Prabhu, Commerce and Industry Minister

9:10 PM: Massive jump in India’s ease of doing business rankings by the World Bank- 30 ranks jump in one year, the highest in the World: Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs

9:05 PM: India has improved its ease of doing business rank by as much as 42 in three years- from 142 to 100. Big reforms and simplification done: Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.

9:00 PM: Good news on economic front continues to flow. Core sector index grew 5.2% in September.  Steady improvement over last three months: Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

8:58 PM: India took a giant leap to enter top 100 club.

This is the complete list World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking 2018

8:52 PM: World Bank’s India Head Junaid Kamal Ahmad said, India’s higher rank will attract foreign investors, as per CNBC TV18 report.

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8:47 PM: If we see continued leadership and coordination, we would expect India to continue to make good progress in coming years-World Bank VP,South Asia.

8:45 PM: It’s highest amount of improvement across region& world.India has jumped 30 places in its ranking compared to other countries-VP, World Bank

8:44 PM: India this year is one of the top-10 improvers across the world: Annette Dixon (World Bank VP, South Asia) on Ease of Doing Business Report.

8:43 PM: Government is committed to further Ease Of Doing Business by bringing in more reforms: FM Arun Jaitley.

8:41 PM: Economic reforms start bearing fruit with passage of time & Govt.’s stand on India’s growth road map is vindicated with Ease Of Doing Business: FM Arun Jailtey.

8:40 PM: It is expected that India’s ranking will improve further in near future, once our reforms process in contract enforcement is put in place: Jaitley.

8:39 PM: Arun Jaitley: GST & the Bankruptcy Code are significant drivers and GST will further improve India’s Ease of Doing business rank in near future.

8:37 PM: Asish Mohapatra, CEO & Co-founder, OfBusiness: For start-ups and small enterprises, this has to be the most significant event dawning acchhe din. Unlike many other initiatives, we see the results on the ground. Not only are permits, licenses and related items much more transparent but there is a distinct change in the behavior of officials, and the later suggests that its here to stay’!

8:35 PM: Santiago Croci Downes, Acting Manager, Doing Business Unit at World Bank, said that in the 15 years’ history of this annual report, there have been only five countries like Georgia and Rwanda which made a massive jump in one year. But none of them were as big an economy as India.

8:34 PM: The GST, which was implemented from July 1, will get reflected only in next year’s ‘ease of doing business’ report. According to the World Bank, New Zealand is the easiest place on the planet to do business, followed by Singapore, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong. The US and the UK are ranked 6th and 7th on the list.

8:32 PM: It takes 30 days now to register a new business, down from 127 days 15 years ago, but the number of procedures is still cumbersome for local entrepreneurs who still need to go through 12 procedures, World Bank said.

8:31 PM: India is the only large country this year to have achieved such a significant shift. The parameters that witnessed improvement in 2016-17 were India making it faster for start business, reduction in procedures and time required to obtain building permit, easier access to credit, protecting minority investors, ease of paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and making resolving insolvency easier.

8:30 PM: The ranking, however, does not take into account business environment post implementation of GST, which weaved the country of 1.3 billion into one market with one tax and removed inter-state barriers for trade, said World Bank.

8:29 PM: World Bank said that India’s ranking reflects nearly half of the 37 reforms, adopted since 2003, implemented in the last four years. It added, India still lags in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits.

8:28 PM: The ranking comes as a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi government amid dissenting voices in certain quarters about implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as demonetisation.

8:27 PM: Describing as significant the huge improvement in India’s position in the World Bank’s ease of doing the business ranking, the new president of an American advocacy group, Nisha Desai Biswal said that this would help attract more FDI to India. She added that FDI is like water. It seeks the path of least resistance. So the more you do to lower resistance the easier and faster the FDI will flow.

8:26 PM: Export and import border compliance costs were also reduced in both Delhi and Mumbai by eliminating merchant overtime fees and through the increased use of electronic and mobile platforms. Enforcing contracts was made easier by introducing the National Judicial Data Grid, which makes it possible to generate case management reports on local courts. Besides, resolving insolvency became easier by adopting an IBC that introduced a reorganisation procedure for corporate debtors and facilitated continuation of the debtor’s business during insolvency proceedings

8:25 PM: The minority investor protections were strengthened by increasing redressal avenues in cases of prejudicial transactions between interested parties, the report said. Paying taxes was made easier by requiring payments to be made electronically to the employees provident fund and introducing a set of administrative measures easing compliance with corporate income tax. With regard to cross border trade, the report said, it was facilitated by reducing import border compliance time in Mumbai from 283 days last year to 265 days now.

8:24 PM: With regard to access to credit, it has seen improvement with amendment in the rules on priority of secured creditors outside reorganisation proceedings and by adopting a new law on insolvency that provides a time limit and clear grounds for relief to the automatic stay for secured creditors during reorganisation proceedings.

8:23 PM: Mumbai also made starting a business faster by merging the applications for value added tax and the Profession Tax (PT). Secondly, there was reduction in the number of procedures and time required to obtain a building permit by implementing an online system that has streamlined the process at the Municipality of New Delhi and Municipality of Greater Mumbai.

8:22 PM: Starting a business was made faster by merging the applications for the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and the Tax Account Number (TAN) and by improving the online application system in New Delhi.

8:21 PM: The World Bank latest ‘Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs’ said that in the last one year, the country did remarkably well in record eight of the 10 areas of reforms. The report is based on the reforms implemented in the past year (June 2, 2016-June 1, 2017) in Delhi and Mumbai, the two cities covered by the report.

8:20 PM: With implementation of a series of reforms including enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), India has climbed to 4th position in protecting interest of minority investors, as per the latest ‘Ease of Doing Business Report’ of the World Bank. This is the first time that India has figured in the top five nations in one of the parameters for determining ‘ease of doing business’.

8:18 PM: PM Modi took to Twitter and congratulated everyone who was part of his ‘Run for Unity’drive. He said,”I congratulate everyone who took part in ‘Run for Unity.’ It is gladdening to see the initiative get such widespread support across India. Guided by the Mantra of ‘Reform, Perform & Transform’ we are determined to further improve our rankings & scale greater economic growth. It has never been easier to do business in India. India welcomes the world to explore economic opportunities our nation has to offer! Over the last 3 years we have seen a spirit of positive competition among states towards making business easier. This has been beneficial. Easier business environment is leading to historic opportunities for our entrepreneurs, particularly MSME sector & bringing more prosperity.”

8:16 PM: Here is where India is listed.

India is ranked 100.

8:12 PM: New Zeland, Singapore and Denmark remain in top 3 for the second year in a row.

Top 10 countries. (World Bank Website)

8:10 PM: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took to Twitter and congratulated everyone who worked hard to achieve this feat.

7:53 PM: World Bank: India registers significant improvement in resolving insolvency in Doing Business rankings.  India now 4th in the world in protecting minority investors category, a jump of 9 ranks from last year. Moreover, 4-rank improvement in dealing with construction permits.

7:53 PM: PM Modi: The report acknowledges India as a top improver with the highest jump in rank of any country in DB Report, 2018. India is the only country in South Asia and BRICS economies to feature among most improved economies of the DB Report this year.

7:52 PM: World Bank: Brunei, Darussalam, Thailand, Malawi, Kosovo, India, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Nigeria,  Djibouti and El Salvador were the most improved economies in 2016/17 in areas tracked by Doing Business. Together, these 10 top improvers implemented 53 regulatory reforms making it easier to do business.

7:50 PM: Achieving Top 50 position in Ease of Doing Business ranking is possible, says FM Jaitley

7:45 PM: India jumped 53 places to 119 in ease of paying taxes as per World Bank report.
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(Ministry of Finance/Twitter)

7:43 PM: In the Resolving insolvency category India was previously ranked 136 but this year it has jumped 33 positions to sit at 103 number: FM Arun Jaitley.

7:40 PM: World Bank report says India is one country which has been undertaking structural reforms: FM Arun Jaitley

READ| World Bank Ease of Doing Business Ranking 2018: India makes the big leap into top 100

 7:30 PM: India jumped 30 places and entered the top 100 club after the World Bank released 2018 edition of Ease of Doing Business today.

7:29 PM: GST will not be included in this years ranking as it did not meet World Banks deadline which is June, reported ET Now.

7:28 PM: Jan Widerstrom, Chairman of Saab India believes India should ease some norms to attract long term foreign investments in manufacturing, reported CNBC TV18.
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7:26 PM: Ajay Dua, Former DIPP secretary: Ease of Doing business ranking is important but is not the determinant factor for investment.

7:23 PM: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will address a press conference on India’s ranking as per World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report.

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7:21 PM: He added if whether GST implications will impact rankings.

7:19 PM: Frank D’Souza, Partner PwC India: This ranking is not only for foreign investors but also for Indian entrepreneurs

7:17 PM: Sandeep Parekh: Significant competition now exist within the states.

7:15 PM: There are 10 categories under which countries are ranked. The categories are- Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Registering Property, Getting Credit, Protecting Minority Investors, Paying Taxes, Trading across Borders, Enforcing Contracts, Resolving Insolvency.

Top 10 countries for ease of business as per World Bank report last year. (World Bank Website)

7:13 PM: DK Joshi, Crisil while talking to ET Now said from a macro perspective, India is doing well

7:02 PM: World Bank has setup ten categories accroding to which the ranking of country is decided.

7:00 PM: New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark were the top three countries in the last report.

6:57 PM: It was a set back for India to rank poorly on the index last year, leaving room for critics to question Prime Minister’s vision to pitch India as an ideal place for doing business.

6:53 PM: India’s ranking in the ease of doing business is crucial for the Narendra Modi government as the Prime Minister had been pitching the country as an ideal place for businesses with initiatives like ‘Make In India” and “minimum government, maximum governance”.

6:46 PM: The government has been saying that it wants to break into the top-100 soon and improve the ranking further

6:44 PM: Last week, Sunil Mittal, head of the largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel, said ease of doing business still remains a major concern and urged the government to do more.

6:35 PM: Three major reforms implemented by the government this year, has kept Modi government hopes high.

 READ| Three reforms Modi hopes will help India to break into top 100

6:30 PM: India hopes to advance 30 positions to Rank 100th in the list of 190 countries.

6:25 PM: Besides implementing GST and Bankruptcy code, the Narendra Modi government has taken small steps to ease procedures for setting up businesses in India.

READ| What has Modi done besides GST, Bankruptcy code to improve Ease of Doing Business ranking?

6:18 PM: India is currently ranked at the 130 position. But why is India so low in the ranking despite being such a big economy?

READ| What pulled India down in 2017, and what might help this year

6:15 PM: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will also address a press conference on India’s ranking.


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6:08 PM: Also Read| What foreign investors want, and why India is in a win-win situation

6:00 PM: The World Bank Ease of Doing Business report 2018 will be released in a while. The Narendra Modi government is hopeful that India will wade into the list of top 100 countries on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking 2018 after taking over “7,000” big and small steps in the past three-and-a-half years, most significant being the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).