India slips two notches in ease of doing biz

Government says World Bank list does not include new reforms

As India slipped further in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, the government on Wednesday defended itself by saying the list by the multilateral lender was prepared much before the new government took over and the reforms were announced.

“The ease-of-doing-business exercise by the World Bank was over by May 16. The new government took charge much after that,” a senior government official said. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), a nodal agency for industrial reforms  under the Commerce Ministry too maintained that the ease-of-doing-business did not reflect the new reforms undertaken by the government.

Protecting investors
The index that ranks 189 countries was published on Wednesday on which India slipped two notches from last year to be placed at 142. The current index is prepared for 2015. The World Bank, however, said that India followed the largest number of “good practices” for protecting minority investors as per the Bank’s indices in this year’s report.
It said while 11 large economies of the world including China, Mexico and the Russian Federation each implemented two reforms to make it easier to do business, India and Indonesia implemented three such reforms each.

The latest assessment by the bank comes after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government vowing to take the country into the league of the world’s 50 most business friendly destinations.

As in every year, Singapore topped the rankings of the World Bank while New Zealand, South Korea, United States, United Kingdom and Australia finished in the top 10.
The bank said India made starting a business easier by considerably reducing registration fees but also made it more difficult by introducing a requirement to file a declaration before the start of business operations.