India ranks 77 in ‘Ease of doing business’ index, jumps 23 places

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India is now at 77 on the World Bank’s ease of doing business, climbing 23 places. It is the only country among the top-ten improvers for a second consecutive year, the government said on Wednesday evening.

India is now at 77 on the World Bank’s ease of doing business, climbing 23 places. It is the only country among the top 10 improvers for a second consecutive year, the government said on Wednesday evening.

Last year, India had jumped 30 places to reach the 100th position. The World Bank surveys 190 countries on six regulatory reforms.

“India has improved its rank in 6 out of 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices (Distance to Frontier score) on 7 out of the 10 indicators, but The most dramatic improvements have been registered in the indicators related to ‘Construction Permits’ and ‘Trading across Borders’,” the commerce ministry statement said.

“We need to take more steps but ranking in top 50 is not out of reach, it’s achievable,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

“It is team work between Central, state and local governments. It’s collaborative effort and combination of several interventions that has resulted in improvement into this ‘Ease of doing Business’ index,” Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said.

The country’s impressive rise in the rankings last year was on the back of policy reforms that improved business climate.

Experts said the Goods and Services Tax, a reform launched in July last year to replace more than a dozen levies by the Centre and states, would impact India’s rank in this year’s index. The World Bank report excluded the impact of GST in its previous report as it covered the period from June 2, 2016 to June 1, 2017.