Doing Business Rankings 2014: Status Quo for India

The
Doing Business Rankings 2014 have just been published by the World Bank and
IFC. Nothing much has changed in the case of India. It has dropped three places
from 131 to 134 out of a total of 189 countries. While the entire report is
available here,
India’s country report is available here.
India’s
rankings on various specific parameters are as follows:
– Starting a business: 179
– Dealing with construction permits: 182
– Getting electricity: 111
– Registering property: 92
– Getting credit: 28
– Protecting investors: 34
– Paying taxes: 158
– Trading across borders: 132
– Enforcing contracts: 186
– Resolving insolvency: 121
On
several of these parameters, India’s ranking has remained constant over the
years, suggesting that reforms have had minimal impact. On an optimistic note,
however, the raising of financing through equity and debt seems to have been
eased given that the performance on accessing credit and protecting investors
is quite high.

Of course, these rankings have been subjected to some amount of
critique, but they nevertheless provide a comparative perspective on doing
business in various countries and their importance cannot be discounted
altogether. It remains to be seen whether recent reforms on company law, land
acquisition, foreign investment, etc. will reflect in improved rankings next
year once they are assimilated into the business environment.

About the author

Umakanth Varottil

Umakanth Varottil is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. He specializes in corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions and cross-border investments. Prior to his foray into academia, Umakanth was a partner at a pre-eminent law firm in India.

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