In the annual Doing Business 2020 : Comparing Business Regulation in 190 Economies released by the World Bank on October 24, India jumped 14 places to the 63rd position from its 77th position last year. The indicator measures the performance of countries across 10 different dimensions in the 12-month period ending May 1, 2019.
The World Bank noted that India has conducted a remarkable reform effort, and has joined the list of top 10 countries that showed improvement for the third year in a row, which it said was commendable given the size of the economy. The country’s score improved from 67.3 last year to 71.0 this year.
“This is the third year in a row that India makes to top 10 in Doing Business, which is a success which very few countries have done over the 20 years of the project. Without exception, the other countries that have done this are very small, population-wise, and homogeneous,” Simeon Djankov, director of Development Economics at the World Bank.
The report said there were improvements in the following parameters:
- efficiency of obtaining building permits
- ease of importing and exporting with the creation of a single electronic platform for trade stakeholders
- electronic submission methods for documents
- upgrades to port infrastructure
The ‘resolving insolvency’ indicator, was mixed: the report noted that though reorganization proceedings had been promoted in practice, resolving insolvency had become harder because dissenting creditors would receive less under reorganization than under liquidation.
