October 23, 2012
MUMBAI: India lags behind neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in the rankings on ease in doing Business, despite carrying out most reforms since 2005, a survey by International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending arm of World Bank shows.
October 23, 2012
MUMBAI: India lags behind neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in the rankings on ease in doing Business, despite carrying out most reforms since 2005, a survey by International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending arm of World Bank shows.
India lags behind neighbours Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in the rankings on ease in doing Business, despite carrying out most reforms since 2005.
A new IFC and World Bank report- Doing Business- finds that India has improved the regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs more than any other economy in South Asia since 2005. In the past eight years India implemented a total of 17 institutional or regulatory reforms making it easier to do business.
'Doing Business' analyzes regulations that apply to an economy's businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and protecting investors. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 185 economies.
But in terms of ranking, India lags Sri Lanka ( 81), Maldives (95) and Bangladesh (129) and is ranked 132 globally in terms of doing business. "It is a relative ranking." Jean Michel Lobet, private sector development specialist global indicators and analysis told ET. "But has improved its business regulations the most over the last eight years. This is in comparison to what India was eight years ago." India is also ahead of its BRIC peers Brazil and Russia in reforms he added.
"If the city of Mumbai alone were to adopt internationally best practices, India has the potential to move 50 places upward in terms of its ranking" he said
The report finds that India is the first economy in the region to make dealing with construction permits easier for local firms since 2005. In the past year India established strict time limits for preconstruction approvals, reducing the time needed to process permit applications.
However India still has a long way to go in further reforming itself and improving its rankings. "India needs to do more regulatory simplification like reduce the number of procedures in obtaining clearances and expedite the process" said Lebot. "It also needs institutional reforms that will help resolve commercial disputes, among others" he added.
Globally, Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business for the seventh consecutive year. Joining it on the list of the 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulation are Hong Kong SAR, China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Norway; the United Kingdom; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; and Australia.
Courtesy: ET
