World Bank’s ease of doing biz: DPIIT focusing on 6 parameters to push India’s ranking

PTI, Jan 5, 2020, 12:51 PM IST

New Delhi: The Commerce and Industry Ministry has prepared a blueprint to further improve India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index with a focus on six parameters, including enforcing contracts and starting a business, an official said.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the ministry, is also following reform activities in Kolkata and Bengaluru as these two cities are included by the World Bank this year besides Delhi and Mumbai for preparing the ease of doing business report, with a view to providing a holistic picture of business environment in India, the official said.

The bank has added a new parameter of government contracting, taking the total number of criteria to 11.

The government will share with the World Bank reform activities undertaken for ease of doing business (EoDB) in May-June this year.

The six parameters where the department is focusing are: enforcing contracts (163rd), resolving insolvency (52nd), starting a business (136th), registering property (154th), paying taxes (115th) and trading across borders (68th).

India has jumped 14 places to rank 63rd out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report on account of a significant improvement in resolving insolvency and obtaining construction permits.

The official said that under enforcing contracts, the focus will be on reducing the time taken in disposal of cases and improve on the quality index of the judicial process and increasing awareness regarding electronic case management tool facility for judges and lawyers.

Similarly, under the ‘registering property’ criterion, the focus would be on land titling legislation by all the four cities, land records to reflect actual ownership and timely disposal of property disputes.

The interventions listed for ‘starting a business’ include integrated registration for ESIC, EPFO, GST, profession tax with company registration.

The exercise assumes significance as the government is targeting to take India among top 50 in the ease of doing business ranking.

This year’s ranking by the World Bank would be released in October.

The other parameters where the country has done well include trading across borders, registering property, paying taxes, getting electricity connections and starting a business.

However, the improvement in the remaining three parameters – getting credit, protecting minority investors, enforcing contracts – are not impressive.

The current ranking is topped by New Zealand. India’s ranking was behind Asian peers Singapore (2nd ranked), Hong Kong (3rd), Korea (5th), Malaysia (12th) and China (31st). The US was placed 6th on the list.