Faster bankruptcy resolution and issuance of construction permits helped India jump 14 places in the World Bank’s annual ranking of countries for their ease of doing business, to 63rd position. “India put in place four new business reforms during the past year and earned a place in among the world’s top ten improvers for the third consecutive year,” the World Bank said in its “Doing Business 2020” report released on October 24th. The economies that showed the most notable improvement were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria.
Keen to draw investment and accelerate economic growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has targeted winning a top-50 ranking in the World Bank’s annual assessment of 190 countries. Last year, India’s government also eased rules for starting new businesses and for conducting international trade. And this year it cut the corporate tax rate to encourage investment. The cities covered in India for carrying out the study continued to be New Delhi and Mumbai, India two largest urban areas.
In 2015 the Indian government’s goal was to join the 50 top economies on the ease of doing business ranking by the year 2020. The administration’s reform efforts targeted all of the areas measured by Doing Business, with a focus on paying taxes, trading across borders, and resolving insolvency. The country has made a substantial leap upward, raising its ease of doing business ranking from 130 in Doing Business 2016 to 63 as of today.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
