India has jumped 30 positions to reach the 100th spot in the World Bank's annual Ease of Doing Business ranking of 190 nations. India has also improved its distance to frontier (DTF), or distance to become the ideal investment and business-friendly state, on almost every parameter. While the ranking is relative to how other countries perform, DTF, as the measurement of absolute performance against an ideal, is a better tool to understand the nature of India's reforms. India's DTF upgrade came from improvement in three of the 10 parameters. Ease of paying taxes improved 18 per cent, ease of getting credit 10 per cent and ease of insolvency proceedings improved 8 per cent - resulting in increase in the overall percentage points by 4.71 per cent. To enter the top-50 list, however, India needs drastic improvements in trading across borders, enforcing contracts, registering property, and getting electricity.
Joe C. Mathew