NEW DELHI: With the World Bank all set to review its flagship 'Doing Business' report of last five years, India’s monumental gain in the business climate index during the period is being questioned. This year, World Bank won't be publishing its Doing Business report as it conducts its assessment.
India has improved its ranking by 79 positions in five years (2014-19). In the recent World Bank’s ease of doing business 2020 report, the country jumped to 63rd position, among 190 nations.
India also figured among the top 10 performers on the list for the third time in a row. "India’s ranking witnessed improvement even as the Central Government took drastic steps such demonetization and ghastly implementation of Goods of Service Tax. These two steps alone uprooted lakhs of small businesses," said a senior economist at a brokerage firm requesting anonymity.
Consultancy firm McKinsey in a report released on Wednesday said that even as India rose from 130th overall in 2016 to 63rd in 2020 in the business index, Indian companies still face obstacles ranging from delayed payments for public procurement to tedious and slow processes for obtaining permits.
"Construction permits, for example, take 106 days, almost double the time in peer emerging markets. These and other issues could be resolved if the government adopted global best practices in relevant areas," the report said.
Taking to Twitter, former union minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the Modi government for chasing "bogus rankings" over the years while MSMEs continued to languish. However, the government is confident that there won’t be much change in India’s position as numerous reforms taken during the last six years has made India a favourite destination for doing business.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that India’s business climate has been continuously improving, not for the sake of World Bank’s Index but to make India easy and simple. "All of us in the government will continue to work tirelessly to ensure efficient and effective norms... and make India one of the easiest countries to invest and create wealth," Kant was quoted as saying.
NITTY-GRITTY OF WORLD BANK’S RANKING
The rankings are based on a country’s performance on 10 indicators such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, etc.
In 2014, India was ranked 142nd. It jumped to the 63rd position among 190 countries in May 2019.