India just improved by one spot in ease of doing business list, ranks 130 out of 190 nations

India managed to just move up one rank on the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking this year. This comes as a disappointment as the Indian government has been making concrete efforts to improve its ranking with a lot of initiatives. The government was targeting to move up into the top 50. But, India is at 130th spot out of 190 countries.

"India has embarked on an ambitious reform path, to list the developments. The country has embarked on a fast-paced reform path, and the Doing Business 2017 report acknowledges a number of substantial improvements,, the report said, mentioning electricity connections to businesses, paying taxes, electronic system for paying employee state insurance contributions, electronic filing of integrated customs declarations, the Companies (Amendment) Act, passage of the commercial courts and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

According to the report, India has made improvement in areas like electricity connections but couldn’t develop in other areas that included payment of taxes and enforcing contracts, prevented improvement on the rankings that is followed widely by global investors. Other factor that affected the ranking was many nations worked on improving the business environment. According to the World Bank report, a record 137 economies around the world have adopted key reforms that make it easier to start and operate small and medium-sized businesses.

The government officials however are not losing their hopes and believe that the efforts will be recognized in the coming years. “We are engaging continuously and closely with the World Bank...Many of our reforms have not been recognised by them. However in many areas we are getting closer to best practices,” said Ramesh Abhishek, secretary at the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

On the issue of getting electricity, India moved up to 26th rank from 70th last year. The country however fell several ranks in parameters such as payment of taxes, trading across borders, and enforcing contracts.

The officials however said that the report overlooked and didn’t covered many achievements by the governments.

"It is disappointing that many achievements have not been covered by the report due to methodological issues. We are hopeful that they will take into account all implemented reforms in future reports,” Abhishek said.

New Zealand topped the World Bank ranking for ease of doing business, followed by Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, Norway, UK, US, Sweden, and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Pakistan made it to the world's top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken. The list is topped by Brunei Darussalam, followed by Kazakhstan, Kenya, Belarus, Indonesia, Serbia, Georgia, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.