DIPP targets sub-50 slot of World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicator with more reforms

MUMBAI: The government on Wednesday renewed its commitment to implementing over 200 reforms to break into the sub-50 ranking of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicator. The move comes a day after the Asia’s third-largest economy, for the first time, got itself the 100th spot among 190 nations, but lower than China, which is ranked 78.

“We have already implemented 122 reforms this year, and are working with World Bank to recognise these. We will further initiate 90 more ease of doing business reforms this year,” said Ramesh Abhishek, secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

Speaking to media on the sidelines of the CII Invest North conclave, he said a jump of 30 positions was commendable, but the aim was to move into the top-50 countries bracket. DIPP has already started taking stakeholder feedback on reform measures to improve the business climate. “This exercise has helped us a lot. This time, we focused mainly on taking feedback from stakeholders. All nodal ministries were taking feedback,” he said.

Recent measures such as GST, bankruptcy code and others improved transparency and are leading to a well rounded growth. According to Niranjan Hiranandani, president, Naredco, the Indian economic growth cycle was all set to embark on a new journey, with the ‘Reboot India’ wave, focusing on digitisation, and boosting infrastructure. “The ambitious ‘Housing for All by 2022’, recapitalisation of banks, easier and quicker clearances, are all major contributors to economic reforms,” he added.

According to Abhishek, the World Bank report has acknowledged that GST was a substantial reform and hopefully, it will have a positive impact. He urged the states to address infrastructure issues and inflexible labor policies to make them competitive.

“We have tremendous scope to improve our ranking further as we still rank at quite low positions in few of the parameters and the government is taking necessary measures to address the same. A few more reforms on judiciary, property and land are being considered by the government and their implementation will further boost our rankings in the years to come,” said Arun Thukral, MD & CEO, Axis Securities.