The Hindu : Business : India 12 notches up in reforms on the global map

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Friday, Sep 28, 2007
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India 12 notches up in reforms on the global map — World Bank

Special Correspondent

Achieves significant improvement when it comes to getting credit

India turns a better place for entrepreneurs
Egypt tops in overall economic reforms

NEW DELHI: The ongoing reforms, especially in cross-border trade issues, have secured India’s position 12 notches up on the global map, but in terms of the level of ease in doing business, the country is still far behind a number of other nations, a report by the World Bank and its private lending arm IFC said here on Wednesday.

In its report titled ‘Doing Business 2008’, the World Bank pointed out that while India had turned a better place for entrepreneurs in matters such as getting a loan, the overall process for a business start-up had become more difficult as compared to a year ago.

Despite moving up in terms of overall ranking based on ten different parameters of business regulation, India still finds itself ranked at the bottom half, at 120th position among 178 economies across the world.

Incidentally, India has achieved significant improvement when it comes to getting credit and trading across the world, but its position has slipped in matters such as starting a business, employing workers, registering property and paying taxes.

With Singapore topping the list for the second year in a row, India’s neighbours such as Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and China, as also lesser known countries like Tonga, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Ghana, Antigua and Barbuda have been ranked higher in comparison. Next to Singapore among the top ten in terms of ease of doing business is New Zealand, followed by the U.S., Hong Kong, Denmark, the U.K., Canada, Ireland and Australia.

However, India has been ranked as the top reformer globally for trading across the borders, but in terms of overall economic reforms, Egypt takes the top slot, followed by Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China and Bulgaria. India does not find place in this list.

The report observed that South Asia speeded up regulatory reform over the past one year to become the second-fastest reforming region in the world, on a par with the pace of reforms in the OECD countries.

“The pick-up in reform was led by India, which rose 12 places on the ease of doing business and made the reform of business regulation a policy objective… Besides making it easier to trade across borders, India increased access to credit by expanding credit bureau coverage to individuals as well as businesses. It also introduced an electronic registry for security rights granted by companies,” it said. The Indian Government, the report said, was taking steps to speed up reforms and noted that the time taken to obtain a business licence in India ranged from 159 days in Bhubaneshwar to 522 days in Ranchi, while the time to register property ranged from 35 days in Hyderabad to 155 days in Kolkata.

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