India's improved ranking in ease of doing business has not aided in real terms

Source: Xinhua | 2020-02-29

India's elevation in ease of doing business as ranked by the World Bank may not have necessarily helped improved the actual ease of doing business in real terms, said a former top official of the country's capital market regulatory agency on late Thursday.

Raising doubt if the progress in ranking has made it easy for Indian business to operate, former Chairman at Securities and Exchange Board of India M. Damodaran said "We have improved on rankings, has ease of doing business improved I'm not so sure."

Speaking at a conference organized by industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry, Damodaran said there were 10 parameters evaluated by the World Bank that has improved the ranking, but India still shares the space with sub-Saharan countries in contract enforcement, as per one of the factors evaluated.

Substantiating his argument, he questioned why investments were shy of coming to India if the ranking had indeed moved up.

In World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2020 report, India jumped to 63rd position from 77th position in 2019 among 190 countries and regions. The ranking in 2019 was an improvement by 23 places over 2018.