EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

IN NEWS

 

India jumped 23 ranks in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index 2018 to 77. It ranked 100 in the 2017 report. India is in the top 10 of Protecting Minority Investors (Rank 7).

 

ABOUT THE INDEX

 

The Ease of Doing Business Index assesses 190 economies and covers 10 indicators which span the lifecycle of a business. These 10 indicators are:

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. Each one of these indicators carry equal weightage.
 

INDIA ‘s PERFORMANCE

 

India is now the region’s top-ranked economy,ahead of Bhutan (81) and Sri Lanka (100), Nepal (110), the Maldives (139), Pakistan (136) and Afghanistan (167) and Bangladesh (176).

India saw the improvement in 6 out of 10 indicators. They are Resolving Insolvency, Paying Taxes, Getting Credit, Enforcing Contracts Protecting Minority Investors and Construction Permits. India ranked 103rd in Resolving Insolvency indicator 119th in Paying Taxes, 29th in Getting Credit, 164th in Enforcing Contracts, 4th in Protecting Minority Investors and 181st in Construction Permits.

 

Since the World Bank sets May 1 as the deadline for measurement, there are several initiatives taken by the government that will only reflect in next year's rankings including the effects of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the full effect of the Goods and Services Tax.

 

WAY FORWARD

 

The country is on the right track in adopting technology and innovations in business processes. Government efforts to this end are laudable. Government’s thrust on infrastructure development to promote trade and business, especially logistics and supply chain centred initiatives, as also overall fiscal reforms including bankruptcy code, are showing results.

 

Despite the sharp improvement India has made in several of the categories in the Index, there were others such as registering a property, starting a business, taxation, insolvency, and enforcing a contract where a lot of work still needs to be done.

 

To improve the score related to registering property we need measures like updating and digitising land records, improving titling and streamlining procedures on transfer of property.

 

The government should understand the de facto situation faced by firms that wanted improvements in the country’s business environment. In order to undertake effective policies to improve the business environment in India, Focus on the micro-policies of enforcement  is needed.

 

The process of improvement has to be continuous and both the Central and state governments will need to work in a number of areas to improve India’s competitiveness.