India Inc cheers jump in World Bank ease of doing business ranking

India's jump to the 77th position in the World Bank's Doing Business Report is an outcome of the reforms undertaken by the Narendra Modi government and will boost the country's investment attractiveness, industry bodies and experts said on Wednesday.

India jumped 23 places to the 77th position in the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' ranking released on Wednesday.

India was ranked 100th in the World Bank's Doing Business Report last year.

The ranking comes as a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi government which faces strong dissenting voices from opposition parties ahead of the general elections next year.

"The revised position will greatly add to the investment attractiveness and competitiveness of the Indian economy, which is the world's fastest growing large economy now," CII President Rakesh Bharti Mittal said.

Commenting on the development, former Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said, "Huge improvement in India's global ranking in Ease of Doing Business report of the World Bank. This will enhance the competitiveness of the Indian economy and generate higher investments, both domestic and foreign."

In its annual report 'Doing Business' 2019 report, World Bank said India improved on six of the 10 parameters relating to starting and doing business in a country.

These parameters include ease of starting a business, construction permits, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trade across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

Arun Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India said India's performance on the World Bank's assessment is a positive sign for foreign investors and is likely to reap benefits in the coming days.

Vishwas Udgirkar, Partner, Deloitte India said the upward movement in ranking is as expected.

"Overall reforms undertaken by the government have led to significant process improvement," he said.

Industry chamber Ficci said the new ranking reflects the depth of reforms been undertaken by the government not just at the Centre but also at the state level with the support of the state governments.

"Going forward, we hope to see further improvement in India's ranking next year and achieving the target of 50 looks very much feasible now, said Ficci President Rashesh Shah.

"This is a very welcome news which denotes the positive impact of various government policies led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Assocham Secretary General Uday Kumar Varma said.

Jaxay Shah, the president of real estate developers' body CREDAI, said there is still a long way to go in order to sustain this momentum and the government should expedite implementation of the single window clearances to accelerate the revival of Indian real estate.

The improvement in trading across the border by 66 places in one go shows how trade facilitation has helped in cutting down time and cost, said Ganesh Kumar Gupta, the President of exporters' body FIEO.

Gautam Mehra, a tax expert with PwC India, said the jump in ranking for the second year in a row is welcome news and an additional ratification that the reforms, both on laws and on process simplification, are showing results.

"The efforts by the Government to simplify customs processes would have been a factor which contributed to the large jump in the rank around cross-border trade," he said.

India was ranked 142nd among 190 nations when the Modi government came to power in 2014. It rose to 100th spot in the last ranking from the 131st rank in the previous year.

New Zealand topped the list of 190 countries in ease of doing business, followed by Singapore, Denmark and Hong Kong.

The United States is placed eight and China has been ranked 46th. Neighbouring Pakistan is placed at 136.

World Bank put India among the top 10 economies to make the most improvements.