India
Here's how Twitter reacted to the news.
Updated : Oct 31, 2017, 09:12 PM IST
India has jumped 30 places to rank 100th in the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' ranking, helped by a slew of reforms in taxation, licensing, investor protection and bankruptcy resolution.
The ranking comes as a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi government amid dissenting voices in certain quarters about implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as demonetisation.
In its annual report 'Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs', the World Bank said that India's ranking reflects nearly half of the 37 reforms, adopted since 2003, implemented in the last four years.
bhai logon ne world bank ki website hi crash kar di? #easeofdoingbusiness
— Rohit Pradhan (@Retributions) October 31, 2017
India this year is one of the top-10 improvers across the world: Annette Dixon (World Bank VP, South Asia) on Ease of Doing Business Report pic.twitter.com/f4Strx8dDG
— ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2017
Beyond Political ideologies one needs to appreciate the jump of 30 places in the "Ease of Doing Business Index" by the World Bank great news
— Tehseen Poonawalla (@tehseenp) October 31, 2017
On India's jump in the ease of doing business ranking, important to note World Bank release says it only looked at Delhi and Mumbai.
— Iain Marlow (@iainmarlow) October 31, 2017
India jumps 30 places higher #easeofdoingbusiness . https://t.co/JjY4b839Pd
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) October 31, 2017
If you would have slammed India for falling 30 spots in WB #EaseOfDoingBusiness ranking it’s only fair to praise it for climbing 30 to #100.
— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) October 31, 2017
India’s Distance to Frontier score increased by just under 4.71 percentage points.In recent years,biggest improvement. #EaseOfDoingBusiness
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) October 31, 2017
Wonderful jump, 130 to 100 in WB #EaseofDoingBusiness rankings. Think what it could be if we cleaned up construction permits, property regn. https://t.co/BVniRzCPle
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) October 31, 2017
Congratulations @narendramodi and #TeamIndia for taking efforts to pass these major landmark legislations/rules which has improved EODB. pic.twitter.com/5LWgrZdDSY
— Ashu(@muglikar_) October 31, 2017
The biggest jump by any country in one year, India moves to 100th rank from 130th last year in #easeofdoingbusiness index by #WorldBank .
— Dr. Mahesh Sharma (@dr_maheshsharma) October 31, 2017
News: India jumps from 130 to 100 in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings
— Pidi Ratty (@YearOfRat) October 31, 2017
RahulG: 130 se 100 pe gira diya Modiji ne!
Pidi: MCMC pic.twitter.com/OFsVKHqiIO
Proud moment- India moves
— Amit Sagar (@ImAmitSagar1007) October 31, 2017
up 30 places from 130th to
100th rank in ease of doing
business, says World Bank
Report. #easeofdoingbusiness
India emerges as top reformer with a quantum jump of 30 ranks in World Bank's EODB. Congratulations @PMOIndia 4 rolling out red carpet.Gr8!
— Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) October 31, 2017
India jumps 30 places and breaks into top 100 of World Bank’s ease of doing Business
— Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) October 31, 2017
Waiting for #Pidi to react :) https://t.co/zeOYUo77tK
A 30-rank jump for India in #EaseofDoingBusiness. Much needed shot in the arm for the Modi govt after a spate of lows on the eco front https://t.co/MHzNmH2y4i
— Ruhi Tewari (@RuhiTewari) October 31, 2017
The ranking, however, does not take into account business environment post implementation of GST, which weaved the country of 1.3 billion into one market with one tax and removed inter-state barriers for trade.
India, which was ranked 130th among the 190 nations, is "one of the top 10 improvers in this year's assessment, having implemented reforms in 8 out of 10 'doing business' indicators," it said. This is the first time India has broken into top 100 nations.
India is the only large country this year to have achieved such a significant shift.
The parameters that witnessed improvement in 2016-17 were India making it faster for start business, reduction in procedures and time required to obtain building permit, easier access to credit, protecting minority investors, ease of paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and making resolving insolvency easier, the World Bank said.
But it still lags in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits. It takes 30 days now to register a new business, down from 127 days 15 years ago, but "the number of procedures is still cumbersome for local entrepreneurs who still need to go through 12 procedures", it said.
"This is a major major jump," Rita Ramalho, Acting Director for World Bank's Global Indicators Group, told PTI in Washington, attributing the climb of 30 places to the series of reforms undertake by the Modi government since 2014.
The GST, which was implemented from July 1, will get reflected only in next year's 'ease of doing business' report.
"GST reforms have not been counted this year. It would come into play for the report next year," Ramalho said, adding that demonetisation was not covered.
India was ranked 130th for last two years. In 2014, it managed to get 142nd spot.
According to the World Bank, New Zealand is the easiest place on the planet to do business, followed by Singapore, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong. The US and the UK are ranked 6th and 7th on the list.
Among BRICS countries, Russia tops the list with 35th position, followed by China which has retained its ranking at the 78th place for the second consecutive year.
The biggest surprise of this year, the authors of the report said, is India, which jumped 30 spots in one year by improving its score by 4.71 to 60.76 points.
"India has improved a lot (this year), but there's still room for improvement, So, I wouldn't necessarily classify it as a nice place to do business yet, but definitely is in the right direction to become a nice place. It is much easier than it was two years ago," Ramalho said.
Santiago Croci Downes, Acting Manager, Doing Business Unit at World Bank, said that in the 15 years' history of this annual report, there have been only five countries like Georgia and Rwanda which made a massive jump in one year. But none of them were as big an economy as India.
Noting that India made a very big effort in the past two years, the World Bank said the results now reflect those initiatives.
"This is a continuous effort of two or three years.
But there's still a long way to go," she said. India used to be in the bottom quarter of the distribution, now it's in the middle which is a big improvement.
"It (India) is still a place where there is room for improvement in making the life of entrepreneurs, less bureaucratic, making transactions simpler and more efficient and less costly. So, there's still significant room for improvement. But it was a very significant change and even not just in relative but also in absolute terms," she said.
For entrepreneurs in India, doing business is simpler now, she argued.
Referring to the series of reforms being carried out by India, Downs said there is a willingness to improve the private sector and prioritise these.
"If you're asking me would India be 50 next year, I would say that's very very unlikely. But if you could tell me you would be 50 in five years, I will say may be," she said.
There are a few areas where there is much room for improvement such as enforcing contracts, which on an average in India is 1,445 days, besides the court system in India is very slow, she said.
"That's one of the areas where India really lags behind compared to other countries," she said, adding that easing property registration and property transactions is another area where things are not very efficient.
With inputs from PTI