India Ranks 63rd In Ease of Doing Business 2020

New Delhi, October 24: After a series of reports that brought multiple bad news for India on the economic front, now Ease of Doing Business Report by the World Bank has brought a huge relief for India. But the result is still far away from the government’s dream of being featured on top 50 in the ranking.

In this report India is at rank 63rd among 190 nations across the world, climbing up by 14 ranks in comparison to the last year. India is the only country this year to have achieved such a significant shift. In the ease of doing business report of 2019, India was at rank 77th among 190 countries. So, this year, India witnessed an improvement by 23 places compared to its position in the previous year’s list.

“In the backdrop of the weak GDP numbers, the union government budget this year presented an ambitious target to be $5T economy in the next five years. The finance minister also highlighted the role of private sector investment as a driver to achieve these ambitious targets. India’s consistent improvement in WBG rankings for ease of doing business is a positive vibe and helps in maintaining a positive sentiment. This improvement in ranking confirms an independent assessment of the progress in as many as eleven areas covered. 

At the same time, entrepreneurs in India are looking for better visibility of policy directions in crucial areas such as e-Commerce, data protection, electric vehicles. The most important task in hand is to take these rankings as one of the indicators and fast track policy-driven reforms across many other areas specific to diverse set of businesses in India.” Anurag Saxena, Global Head – Strategic Initiatives, MSC (MicroSave Consulting). 

Commenting on Ease Of Doing Business rank Chandrajit Banerjee, DG, Confederation of Indian Industries ( CII) , “India has achieved a remarkable feat with the 79 ranks improvement in 5 years in the Doing Business Ranking! CII congratulates and applauds the Government for this significant accomplishment. The reform initiatives aimed at digitising, streamlining and rationalizing regulatory compliances and procedures have imparted a huge fillip to the investor sentiment by ensuring faster processes, lower transaction costs and greater transparency. This extraordinary jump in the ranking is an outcome of sustained and consistent multi-year business reforms, especially in the indicators of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, trading across borders and resolving Insolvency, where the country has noted remarkable improvement. I am confident that this momentum of business reforms will be maintained and India will be among top 50 destination as was envisioned by our PM.”

Industry’s feedback has been well heard and noted by the government in the last few years in a partnership approach and we from CII greatly appreciate this proactive GoI leadership.

India which is having a GDP growth rate of 5 per cent, which is the lowest in the last six years and is going through a deep economic downturn in the economy and steep fall in the demand, this report may attract foreign investors for India in the future.

In this report, the World Bank said that India has conducted a series of reform that improved the business situation in the country. The world bank attributed to the fresh four reforms taken by India in the last 12 months. Make in India campaign and insolvency resolution are a few reforms among many, that improved the India’s situation in the Ease of Doing Business ranking.

“India, which has conducted a remarkable reform effort, joins the list for the third year in a row. Given the size of India’s economy, these reform efforts are particularly commendable,“ the World Bank said in its report.

It also said the case of India provides an example of successful implementation of reorganisation procedures, including the enactment of the Insolvency and bankruptcy code in 2016.

With a slew of several other measures taken by the government, India’s position in the ease of doing business next year will improve further. As the major tax cut for corporates will bear fruits for India next year. The ease of doing business report is an annual report, which ranks countries on business friendliness, absence of bureaucratic red tape takes into account reform measures implemented between June-May in any given year.

On foreign investment side, what would be the impact of India’s significant improvement in ease of doing business, we will have to wait and watch.