Despite A Slew Of Reforms, Ease of Doing Business Ranking Remains Unchanged

India's ease of doing business ranking remained unchanged vis-a-vis last year's original ranking of 130 among the 190 economies assessed on various parameters in the World Bank's Doing Business 2017 report released on Tuesday. Ease of Doing Business in India averaged 133.13 from 2008 until 2015, reaching an all-time high of 139 in 2010 and a record low of 130 in 2015.

India’s traditional rivals, Pakistan and China, were ranked 144 and 78 respectively. The top spot in the ranking was captured by New Zealand, followed by Singapore and Denmark.

According to the data presented by the World Bank Group, obtaining a digital signature certificate in India requires between 1 to 3 days, obtaining a director identification number (DIN) online requires at least 1 day, company name registration with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) online takes between 2 to 7 days and obtaining a Obtain a Permanent Account Number (PAN) requires between 7 to 10 days.

With last year's ranking, however, being revised to 131, India has, effectively, improved its place by one spot for 2017. India, thus, continues to rank 130th, recording little or no improvement in dealing with construction permits, getting credit, among other parameters.

Reacting to the latest report, the Indian government expressed disappointment, saying the World Bank had not taken into consideration 12 key reforms undertaken by India.

"We will continue engagement with the World Bank and address their concerns to include these reforms in the next year's Doing Business report," Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ramesh Abhishek said. He said a dozen important reforms like the enactment of bankruptcy code, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the introduction of single window system for building plan approvals, among others online were not "recognised by the World Bank this year".

Ranking related data is available here.