India difficult place for business; reforms needed: WB

India is ranked 142nd among 189 nations in the World Bank's Doing Business 2015 study

The World Bank said on Monday that India remains a difficult place to do business.

It advised the central and state governments to pursue more reforms in the areas of inspection norms, digitisation of requisite business documents and comprehensive data on available land.

"The growth of business in India requires concerted action on several fronts -infrastructure, capital markets, trade facilitation and skills - but the stark reality is that India remains a difficult place to do business," country director Onno Ruhl said in his foreword to the Bank report on 'Assessment of state implementation of business reforms', issued on Monday.

The report does list positive steps in the areas of taxation and labour rules. However, it points to a poor showing in inspection norms, digitisation of records and adoption of (information) technology as serious drawbacks in increasing the ease of doing business.

India is ranked 142nd among 189 nations in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2015 study. The present government aims to improve the country's ranking to 50 in the next couple of years.

All India's states are yet to begin implementing electronic courts - district courts which allow for e-filing of disputes, issuance of e-summons, online payments, e-cause lists and digitally signed court orders. And, 26 states are yet to introduce reforms along a wide range of labour inspections under various acts or on inspections related to building permits. Twenty five states lack online availability of information on land banks and use of GIS systems to track industrial land parcels.

Ruhl said the hardest leg of the business process is the setting-up phase. And, the "majority of the regulatory burden is due to the plethora of laws, rules, regulations and procedures enforced by the states".

While this gives rise to a wide number of registrations, licences and No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for businesses to obtain and file compliance returns on, the complex process is made even more difficult with the mindset of India's bureaucracy. This becomes evident when the government itself is seen to have a hard time keeping track of these.