Historic jump in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings is the outcome of the all-round & multi-sectoral reform push of… https://t.co/vEkDR15nDz — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 1509460728000

(With PTI inputs)

Ease of doing business improves, India jumps 30 places to rank 100

NEW DELHI: Bringing in more reason to cheer, India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index showed a significant improvement driven by reforms in access to credit, power supplies and protection of minority investors. As per the latest report released, India has moved to 100th spot from 130th position.Addressing a press conference after the report was released, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that "this is the highest jump any country has made in the doing business rankings." In "resolving insolvency" parameters, India has jumped 33 places and is now ranked 103, he added.With implementation of a series of reforms including enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), India has climbed to 4th position in protecting interest of minority investors, according to the report. This is the first time that India has figured in the top five nations in one of the parameters for determining "ease of doing business". On paying taxes India has jumped 53 places , from 172 to 119. On getting credit India has jumped 15 places from 44 to 29.Speaking on the development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: "Historic jump in ‘ Ease of Doing Business ’ rankings is the outcome of the all-round & multi-sectoral reform push of Team India."In its annual report "Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs", the World Bank said that India's ranking reflects nearly half of the 37 reforms, adopted since 2003, implemented in the last four years.The ranking, however, does not take into account business environment post implementation of GST, which weaved the country of 1.3 billion into one market with one tax and removed inter-state barriers for trade."India has improved a lot (this year), but there's still room for improvement, So, I wouldn't necessarily classify it as a nice place to do business yet, but definitely is in the right direction to become a nice place. It is much easier than it was two years ago," said Rita Ramalho, acting Director for World Bank's Global Indicators Group. In the last report, India ranked at 130 out of the 190 countries evaluated, advancing just one spot from the previous year's 131. The rankings are determined on 10 parameters.Besides implementation of the roll-out of the big-bang Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1 this year, the government has considerably eased procedures for setting up businesses in the country.The insolvency and bankruptcy law too has been operationalised, which paved way for speedier exit of failed businesses.In October last year, PM Modi had asked the top officials to study the report to analyse areas requiring reforms and improvement.The government has been making efforts to further improve ease of doing business and aims to bring the country in the top 50.