Market scenario India: 100th spot in Ease of Doing Business

India has clinched the 100th spot in the Top 100 ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings that was recently released by the World Bank.

India has jumped 30 steps ahead from the last ratings which is an achievement in itself. The credit for this success is owing to various initiatives undertaken by the Indian Government such as reforms in taxation, licensing, investor protection and bankruptcy resolution to make the country business friendly.

At an event, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India stated, “The World Bank has recognized the stupendous work done by us towards improving the ‘Ease of Doing Business’. We are now among the top hundred countries in the rankings. Over the last three years, I have been constantly sharing with the domestic and foreign investor community that we in India are making sincere efforts to improve the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and today India has walked the Talk.”

Business regulations

The higher the rank, the more conducive it is for businesses to start and operate their businesses in a country. The results are declared based on ten areas of business regulation such as 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.

According to reports, Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley also vowed to continue reforms that would help the country break into the top 50 nations. “The highest jump in ranking was possible as significant improvements in all the ten judging parameters were made in last 3-4 years so that it becomes easy to do business in India,” he said. The World Bank had named 10 countries where structural reforms were taken and India was one of them.

He added, “The biggest jump has been on improvements that we have done on the taxation front. Till last year, out of 189 nations, we were at the 172nd spot. It means paying taxes were a very cumbersome process and we were down. But this year we have moved up 53 places.”

Challenges

The World Bank said India still lagged in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits. Jaitley said the government was seriously taking up the 3-4 issues where India still lagged behind so that in the next 1-2 years there would be an improvement of 20-30 points in the ranking.

The finance minister said reforms were a continuous process. “The 3-4 areas where we haven’t been treated very high are all areas where a significant amount of work is in progress and once its impact is shown to the ground, I’m sure it will be taken into consideration in next year’s ranking,” he said.

The ranking does not include the newly introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST); hence, the government will be expecting to gain some brownie points in this space too for future ratings.

India is considered to be the next manufacturing hub for global businesses and in the midst of all these developments, the future of India’s business prospects looks promising!

Ranking of top 10 countries in Ease of Doing Business

• New Zealand

• Singapore

• Denmark

• Korea, Rep.

• Hong Kong SAR, China

• United States

• United Kingdom

• Norway

• Georgia

• Sweden

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