India has risen 14 positions in the World Bank's annual Ease of Doing Business (EODB) report, 2020. India is at the 63rd position this year, up from the 77th position in the last report in a pool of 190 countries assessed.
India has scored 71 points out of a possible 100 in this report, compared to 67.5 points in the last iteration. This year, India has also featured in a list of top 20 'reformer' economies as compiled by the report.
This year, New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark have been ranked as the top three economies with the greatest ease of doing business.
The EODB report is often cited to by government functionaries as being a credible perspective on India's performance on governance and reform as perceived abroad.
BOOM tells you all you need to know about this edition of the EODB report.
What does the report measure?
The Ease of Doing Business report aims to objectively measure business regulation and tracks its enforcement across 190 economies. This year, the report captured 294 reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019.
In certain economies, the report also covers sub-national entities such as cities or provinces. The report goes back to its first publication in 2002.
What is the methodology?
The study delves into a set of 10 indicators across economies:
On the ground, the surveyors estimate these initial scores on each of these rankings through a questionnaire, whose content is backed by academic research. This can be read here.
All these indicators are then scaled to a score between 1-100 (with 100 being the best obtainable core), with the final EODB score then being arrived at through an average of them.
In India, the EODB report has been conducting its surveys and provides a similar score in two cities - New Delhi and Mumbai.
How has India performed?
India's has gained 14 places over the last year - going from 77th to 63rd. India has also gained on its score, going from 67.5 in EODB report 2019, to 71 points in the current report.
This also comes amid India improving its score consistently since 2015.
India also ranks the highest among its peers in South Asia.
On what parameters has India improved?
India has improved on the following four parameters through reforms:
- Starting a business - although India still ranks 126th out of 190
- Dealing with construction permits - where India ranks 27th
- Trading across borders - with a rank of 68
- Resolving insolvency - with a rank of 52
These features have also put India in a list of top 20 reformers in this year's EODB report. India joins Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China, Pakistan, Kuwait, Nigeria and Jordan among others to implement a fifth of all business reforms recorded worldwide. The report states:
Economies are selected based on the number of reforms and on how much their ease of doing business score improved.
This section can be read here.
How do Delhi and Mumbai stand?
Delhi ranks marginally higher than Mumbai in its ease of doing business, although both cities have followed the trend of India's year-on-year score improvement.
Read this report here.