India is at 142nd position among 182 economies, falling two place from its previous year's rank, in the global 'Doing Business Index' by the World Bank.
The US government has expressed that it is important for India to ease its business environment and also to simplify its tax regime to attract investments from across the world, according to an ET report.
India is at 142nd position among 182 economies, falling two place from its previous year's rank, in the global 'Doing Business Index' that is formulated by the World Bank. Gujarat emerged on rank one in ease of doing business with 71.14%, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
However, the major states occupied higher ranks in the list. West Bengal occupied 11th slot, Tamil Nadu (12th), Haryana (14th), Delhi (15th), Punjab (16th), Himachal Pradesh (17th), Kerala (18th), Goa (19th), Bihar (21st) and Assam was put at 22nd position.
The World Bank said that India is difficult place to do business and that the country needs various reforms to improve its ranking.
Nisha Desai Biswal, US Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs, was speaking at the launch a of report titled 'India's Rise: A Strategy for Trade-Led Growth' that is compiled by Fred Bergsten, founding director of Peterson Institute of International Economics.
The study says that it is imperative for Indian government to liberalize its trade boundaries. According to Bergsten analysis, India could exactly boost its exports by $500 billion a year by joining the next stage of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
TPP is a proposed trade agreement between Pacific Rim countries that seeks to lower trade barriers such as tariffs, enforce standards for labour law and environmental law, an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism and to find a way to deal with intellectual property issues.
Bergsten also argued that, by liberalizing its trade regime, India can clinch the growth mark of 8% to 10% growth, as desired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government. He added that doing so will also help in creating millions of new jobs, and assist India in reducing poverty.
The aforementioned report, however, has pointed out a negative fallout of this agreement. According to the study, India stands to lose around $50 billion of its current exports as the other countries outside this trade agreement will discriminate against it.
In a bid to make the tax regime simpler and aid ease of doing business in the country, the government is already striving to get two important bills -- Goods and Services tax and the Land Acquisition Bill -- in the parliament. Earlier this month, minimum alternate taxes for foreign institutional investors were also scrapped in the effect.
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