The World Bank released its latest Doing Business Report (DBR,2020) on 24th October 2019. India has recorded a jump of 14 positions against its rank of 77 in 2019( refer to Table 1. below), to be placed now at 63rd rank among 190 countries assessed by the World Bank.

India’s leap of 14 ranks in the Ease of Doing Business ranking is significant. It is worthwhile mentioning that there has been steady improvement since 2015, and for the third consecutive year, India is amongst the top 10 improvers. As a result of continued efforts by the Government, India has improved its rank by 79 positions in the last 5 years [2014-19].

This year, India’s DTF (Distance to Frontier) score improved to 71.0 from 67.23 in the previous year. India has improved its rank in 7 out of 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices.

Significant improvements have been registered in following:

(a)    Resolving Insolvency

(b)    Dealing with Construction Permits,

(c)    Registering Property,

(d)    Trading across Borders

Still, there is a lot of scope in the following parameters

(a)    Paying Taxes – The Government effort to shift to the Direct Tax Code is also much appreciated. Experts feel it might be tabled in the forthcoming Winter Session of parliament.

(b)    Getting Electricity– Now since India is a power surplus country, the red tape associated with DISCOM must be addressed to on war footing

(c)    Starting a Business – Singapore registers a new company in just 4 business hours. Though much has been done, but still there is lot of scope & learning.

Few other areas which require attention of government are

(a)    Improvement of Standard of Living so that the quality of the workforce is retained in the country.

(b)    Procedural Ease in Regulatory Architecture

(c)    Flexible Immigration Policy

(d)    Pro Business attitude

(e)    Trustworthy economy

(f)     World-class infrastructure

(g)    Tax-friendly jurisdiction

(h)    International market

The author feels that it’s High Time that Indian Government should shift its financial year to calendar year so that it is aligned with the major world Economies.

With improvement in ranking, India can expect FDI inflows which can help in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of crafting a $5 trillion economy by 2025.