The ease of doing business in India has shown an improvement with country making a significant jump in the ranking list of 189 countries analyzed for favourable conditions to carry out business.
India now ranks 130 out of 189 countries in the ease of doing business, moving up 12 places from last year, according to a World Bank report.
The report titled ‘Doing Business 2016’ released by World Bank ranks Singapore first, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, South Korea, Hong Kong, Britain and the US.
China has moved six spots up since the last year and is ranked 84 while as Pakistan is at 138th place slipping 10 spots from 128 last year.
The rankings are based on 10 indicators such as how easy it is to start a business and sometimes form the basis of foreign investments in a country. According to the new report, it takes 29 days to start a business in India now while as it took 127 days in 2004.
According to the report, India recorded the biggest increase in the distance to frontier score since 2004 among the South Asian economies.
“One of the areas of greatest improvement has been starting a business. In 2004 India cut time from the process for obtaining a permanent account number (an identification number for firms), and in 2006 it speeded up the process for obtaining a tax registration number. In 2010 India established an online system for value added tax registration and replaced the physical stamp previously required with an online version. And in the past year India eliminated the paid-in minimum capital requirement and streamlined the process for starting a business.”
While the reforms are ongoing, full effects of the measures have yet to be felt, it adds.
“What is significant about India is that they are in the middle of what appears to be a very, very ambitious process of reforms affecting a broad range of areas captured by the Doing Business indicators,” Lopez Claros, Director of the Global Indicators Group World Bank, said during a conference call.
“My expectation, therefore, is that if this process continues, if it is sustained, and the authorities show the degree of determination which has been in evidence in the last year, then we could see substantial improvements in coming year,” he said.
Read more: