India moves up 30 places on ease of business index

India enters top 100, improves on eight of 10 indicators

NEW DELHI: A raft of policy reforms has helped India significantly improve its business climate, an annual World Bank index showed on Tuesday, burnishing Prime Minister Na rend ra Mo di’ s reformist credentials that could help him win big-ticket investments.

For the first time, India jumped a record 30 places to 100 in the Ease of Doing Business report for 2018, which is an influential 190country barometer of competitiveness that many businesses likely consider for investment decisions. India’ s impressive performance also signals a possible turnaround in the country’s eco- nomic narrative after months of sluggish growth, helped largely by reforms in taxation, insolvency laws and access to credit that Prime Minister Mo di pushed to boost investment and jobs.

“Evaluation for the ease of doing business ranking is very tough. The ranking does not reflect the reform measures unless the outcome is visible on the ground,” finance minister Arun Jaitley told journalists.

The benchmark, based on data from New Delhi and Mumbai for the year to June 2017, puts India among the top 10 “improvers” globally, having done better in eight of 10 business indicators. But India still lags in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits, the report said.

The latest findings help India close the gap on its arch rival China whose ranking remained unchanged for a second year at 78. The report, which has often attracted criticism for not being representative enough, excluded the impact of the government’s shock withdrawal of high-value banknotes last year.

“This report takes into account only Delhi and Mumbai. To get a true picture of doing business in India, manufacturing hubs such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat should have been looked at,” said former Indian chief statistician Pronab Sen.

Historic jump in rankings is outcome of the allround & multisectoral reform push of Team India

NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister If we work on areas that we are still lagging behind, we have the potential to jump up into the top 50

ARUN JAITLEY, Finance minister