India jumps 23 positions to rank 77 in World Bank's 'ease of doing business' ranking

India on Wednesday ranked at 77th position in the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' index. India has recorded a jump of 23 positions against its rank of 100 in 2017. 

The World Bank has recognized India as one of the top improvers for the year. Last year in 2017, India jumped 30 places to rank 100th among 190 nations in World Bank's 'ease of doing business' index.  

India has improved its rank by 53 positions in last two years and 65 positions in last four years.

India is the first BRICS and South Asian country to be recognized as top improvers in consecutive years.

India is recognised among top 10 improvers for the 2nd consecutive year. India is now ranked first among South Asian countries compared to 6th rank in 2014.

For the Narendra Modi administration, the development is a welcome news and endorses its reform credentials.

"When we came to power the PM had said that we have to come within the top 50 ranks. Today, we are at Rank 77. DIPP has worked on how to up the ranking on each criterion. You have to crack the code & try and improve on the criterion in which we lack," said finance minister Arun Jaitley.

"It’s teamwork between Central, state governments. It's collaborative effort and a combination of several interventions that have resulted in improvement into this ‘ease of doing business’ index," said Union Minister Suresh Prabhu.

“India continued its reform agenda, implementing six reforms in the past year. India is now the region’s top-ranked economy,” the World Bank said, ahead of Bhutan (81) and Sri Lanka (100), Nepal (110), the Maldives (139), Pakistan (136) and Afghanistan (167) and Bangladesh (176).

India has improved its rank in six out of the 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices on seven out of 10 indicators.

The World Bank index ranks 190 countries on the basis of 10 indicators, namely starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering a property, getting credit, getting electricity, trading across borders, resolving insolvency, enforcing contracts, protecting minority investors and paying taxes.

India reduced the time and cost to export and import through various initiatives, including the implementation of electronic sealing of containers, the upgrading of port infrastructure and allowing electronic submission of supporting documents with digital signatures, the World Bank said.

In the World Bank Group’s annual ease of doing business rankings, the top 10 economies are New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark, which retain their first, second and third spots, respectively, for a second consecutive year, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China; Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; United States; United Kingdom and FYR Macedonia. 

India's performance over the past ten years

2018: Rank 77
2017: Rank 100
2016: Rank 130 
2015: Rank 130 
2014: Rank 142
2013: Rank 134
2012: Rank 132
2011: Rank 132
2010: Rank 134
2009: Rank 133

(With inputs from agencies)