India expects a big jump in 'ease of doing business ranking' this year

With measures being taken to improve 'Ease of Doing Business' in the country, the Commerce and Industry Ministry expects a significant improvement in India's ranking this year.

The ministry expects that India's ranking in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business report would be in the range of 95 to 105 from the current 142 out of 189 countries, a senior official said, adding India aims to feature among top 50 in the next three years.

Although, there have been some changes in the methodology to calculate the rankings, "We are expecting a healthy improvement", the official added.

The World Bank's report will come by around October.

The official said during that time, the government would take more measures in this regard.

"Within one week, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will circulate a set of recommendations to 14 central ministries and Delhi NCR and Maharashtra. We are suggesting action points and timelines for every steps," the official added.

All those steps have been discussed comprehensively during the two-and-a-half day workshop with World Bank officials.

The DIPP would circulate those suggestions to all other states as that will help them in improving India's ranking because they are the ones responsible for implementation of schemes.

The World Bank report considers three things while ranking countries - processes, cost and time. The nine parameters which are being considered by the bank to prepare the report include starting a business, construction permits, getting electricity and water connections, enforcement of contracts and resolving insolvency.

During the workshop, concerns have been raised over two main fronts - enforcement of contracts and resolving insolvency.

As per reports, India's judicial system takes on an average 1,420 days to resolve a commercial dispute. On the other hand, countries which have high ranking, takes only 4 to 6 months time.

The official said India can improve in this area by way of increasing number of courts, filling the vacancies of judges and setting up fast-track courts.

Further to deal with the problem of insolvency, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the government will unveil a comprehensive Bankruptcy Code.

The government has taken a series of steps to improve ease of doing business that include having a timeline for clearance of applications, de-licensing the manufacturing of many defence products and introduction of e-Biz project for single window clearance.

Improvement in the ranking will help in attracting both foreign and domestic investments.