Ease of Doing Business: Modi govt now eyes the top 50 club Addressing the media on the back of India's rise in Ease of Doing Business, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley lauded Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for cracking the code by which countries are ranked. India's journey from 142 in 2014 to 77 in 2018 marks a significant improvement, stated Jaitley. With uniform construction bye-laws, India has jumped from 184 in 2014 to 52 IN 2018. This is the largest single jump, said Jaitley.

In a big boost for NDA government, India climbed another 23 points in the World Bank ’s ease of doing business index to 77th place, becoming the top ranked country in South Asia for the first time and third among the BRICS.In the last two years the country has climbed 53 notches, a performance matched in the past only by Bhutan. The biggest gain was in construction permit where India climbed 129 ranks to 52nd place on the back of targeted government effort to remove hurdles.The details were revealed in World Bank’s Doing Business Report which is an assessment of business regulation across 190 economies.Further, India now ranks in the top 25 in the world on three indicators- getting electricity, getting credit and protecting minority investors, department of industrial policy and promotion said on Wednesday.The doing business report ranks countries on the basis of distance to frontier (DTF), a score that shows the gap of an economy to the global best practice. India’s DTF score improved to 67.23 from 60.76 last year.The World Bank has recognised India as one of the top improvers for the year. This year, India features among the report’s list of top 10 improvers for the second year in a row. India is the one of only nine countries around the world and only one in BRICS to feature in this list.The six reforms recognised in this year’s report are starting a business, getting electricity, dealing with construction permits, getting credit, paying taxes and trading across borders.In dealing with construction permits, India has implemented an online single window system, introduced deemed approvals and reduced the cost for obtaining these permits. In the electricity sector, the time taken for obtaining a new connection has reduced from 105 to 55 days. For resolving insolvency, India has put in place a new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and time bound reorganization procedure for corporate debtors.