India for the first time moved into the top 100 in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business global rankings on the back of sustained business reforms over the past several years. This was announced by the World Bank Group's latest Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs report. Last year the report had ranked India at 130.
The report also recognizes India as one of the top 10 improvers in this year's assessment, having implemented reforms in 8 out of 10 Doing Business indicators. India is the only large country this year to have achieved such a significant shift. On the "distance to frontier metric," one of the key indicators in the survey, India's score went from 56.05 in Doing Business 2017 to 60.76 in Doing Business 2018. This means last year India improved its business regulations in absolute terms - indicating that the country is continuing its steady shift towards best practice in business regulation.
Marking its 15th anniversary, the report notes that India has adopted 37 reforms since 2003. Nearly half of these reforms have been implemented in the last four years. The report captures reforms implemented in 190 countries in the period June 2, 2016 to June 1, 2017.
"Having embarked on a strong reform agenda to improve the business environment, the significant jump this year is a result of the Indian government's consistent efforts over the past few years. It indicates India's endeavor to further strengthen its position as a preferred place to do business globally," said Annette Dixon, Vice President, South Asia region.
This year, the eight indicators on which reforms were implemented in Delhi and Mumbai, the two cities covered by the report are: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency (see the factsheet). Last year the Doing Business report recognized India for reforms in the areas of getting electricity, paying taxes, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.
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