India ranking to improve if states' best practices included:WB

The World Bank, which recently ranked India 142nd in its ease of doing business list, today said the ranking will improve by at least 50 notches if one includes the best practices followed at the state level.

"A few years back the World Bank did a sub-national 'ease of doing business exercise,' looking at how different states perform. What we found was that if all of the country's best practices were put together, the ranking would increase by more than 50 places," World Bank senior country economist Denis Medvedev said today.

"So, many of the solutions can be found right here in India," he added, during an interaction on social networking site Facebook this evening.

The comments comes within days of the country's position slipping further to 142 among 189 countries in the ease of doing business ranking, as against 134 last year.

The latest ranking, however, does not take into account the latest slew of measures taken by Modi government to make India a business friendly destination.

"There are two things to keep in mind. First, 'ease of doing business' is a ranking which means that performance is relative. So, even though the country's actual score has improved, the scores of other countries improved even more. This means that one always has to keep an eye on competitors," he said.

During the hour-long chat, Medvedev expressed optimism about the country reaping the demographic dividend in the next decade, when the population over the world starts to age.

"I certainly think India will reap the demographic dividend. India will be in a unique position 10 to 20 years down the line when the rest of the world will be well advanced in terms of aging and Indian labour force is young and better educated," he said.

On the government's recent moves to have an expenditure management commission, he said it will identify steps to improve fiscal performance.

To make growth more sustainable over a longer-term, the World Bank economist said the country has to focus on bottlenecks in the near-term such as business environment and lack of energy supplies, establish foundations for stronger long-term growth by managing urbanisation and building skills, and ensuring that growth is sustainable.