India ranks 134th in ease of doing business

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SME Times News Bureau | 29 Oct, 2013
India ranked a lowly 134 in the ease of doing business index, but implemented the most number of business regulatory reforms in 2012-13 reforms in the South Asian region.

A new World Bank Group released Tuesday also finds that India has made an improvement of 0.5 percentage points in what is called "the distance to frontier" measure with a range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the best performance or the frontier.

India's "distance to frontier" in 2013 was 52.7 as against 52.3 in 2012.

The report also finds that six of eight economies in South Asia completed 11 reforms simplifying the process of starting a business, strengthening access to credit, or easing the process for paying taxes.

Since 2005, all economies in the region have implemented business regulatory reforms in the areas measured by Doing Business.

Together, the eight economies recorded 75 reforms. India implemented the most number of reforms in the region with 17 reforms during this period, followed by Sri Lanka with 16.

But Sri Lanka claims the region's highest spot in the global ease of doing business ranking, at 85 out of 189 economies.

Among the BRICS economies - Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa - Russia made the most progress.

Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulations are Hong Kong, China; New Zealand; the US; Denmark; Malaysia; South Korea; Georgia; Norway; and Britain.

The report found that governments around the world significantly stepped up their pace of improving business regulations in 114 economies last year - an 18 percent jump from the previous year.

It is the 11th in a series of annual reports on the ease of doing business, and it documented 238 business regulatory reforms worldwide last year.