This year's report also shows that in the area of Protecting Minority Investors, India is one of only six economies in the world that earn the highest possible score on the extent of shareholder rights index, which measures shareholders' rights in corporate governance. India continues to perform well on this indicator set, with a global rank of 13.

Although India has made improvements, challenges remain in certain areas such as Paying Taxes, Enforcing Contracts, Dealing with Construction Permits, and Starting a Business. For instance, it takes a business almost one year longer in India to resolve a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court than it does in the rest of the region. 

For the first time, Doing Business 2017 includes a gender dimension in three indicators: Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts.  India performs well on these new measures and the report finds no gender-related barriers in the economy.

The Paying Taxes indicator has been expanded to cover post-filing processes, such as tax audits and VAT refund. These new measures reveal space for improvement in India. For example, it takes 54 hours to comply with a corporate income tax audit in India, compared to the global average of 17 hours.

END