India Takes 142nd Spot Among 189 Nations in WB’s ‘Doing Business Index’, Need for More Reforms
In his recent statement the World Bank Country Director, OnnoRuhl has described India as a tough place to operate the business and has advised the country to undertake concentrated and effective action with premeditated reforms directed towards the improvement of the country’s policies on several crucial fronts to improve the ranking in ‘Doing Business Index’.
In his foreword, accompanied in the report of ‘Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms’ released on 14th September 2015, Ruhl added,
“… the need of the day is reform, and the reforms must be led by the government at both central and state levels”
In the study of World Bank’s Doing Business 2015, India has been placed on 142nd rank among the concerned 189 nations.
In his observation regarding the business environment in India, Ruhl observed that there is an excessively high red tape burden which businesses need to bear in India as part of their day to day function, he also added, “The growth of business in India requires concentrated action on several fronts – infrastructure, capital markets, trade facilitation, and skills – but the stark reality is that India remains a difficult place to do business”.
He also stated that India has not even made into the list of top 100 countries on eight out of the total 10 parameters of the overall World Bank study.
For instance in one of the parameters regarding issuance of construction permits and enforcing the adherence to regulatory contract India ranked amongst the bottommost 10 economies of the world.
And the prime reason behind this and similar other issues which result in India’s low ranking in the ‘Doing Business Index’ of World Bank, is none other than the regulatory burdens. The country director of WB also added, “the majority of the regulatory burden… is due to the plethora of laws, rules, regulations, and procedures enforced by the states. This gives rise to a wide number of registrations, licenses, and NOC’s that business must obtain and file compliance returns on”.
Ruhl appreciated the efforts of the Indian government but also reminded that they need to buckle up to bring about a change and should prioritize and focus on the implementation of reform policies regarding setting up and starting a business venture, resolving the insolvency issues, enforcing stringent measures to encourage adherence to contracts and also simplifying the trade across the borders of the country.
All these measures will provide a positive stimulus to efforts of the Indian government and a detailed report on states will also contribute towards the identification of possibilities to pave a smoother road further for the businesses.
In another report compiled by World Bank with inputs from Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), KPMG, CII & FICCI which studied and ranked Indian states in the category of ease of doing business,
Gujarat has topped the ranking with first rank and is trailed by Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand in second and third spot.
“A pleasing aspect of the effort of the last one year has been the lead taken by the government of India in pushing through an agreed set of reforms in the states”, Ruhl also said.
But in the meanwhile, “much more is required to be done at state governments’ level to achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of making India an easy place to do business”, added Ruhl.
The motive behind these rankings is to encourage a sense of competitiveness between the states and stimulate them to draw domestic and foreign investments in their respective states.
There is no denying the fact that the central government is taking some positive measures to improve India’s ranking but now is high time for the states to stand up to the challenges and contribute in their own ways.
All the efforts are being directed with a single motive to place India among the top 50 countries in regard to ease of conducting business within a time frame of three years.
