Ease of doing business: 3 factors Modi is counting on for a jump in World Bank’s rankings

India expects a double-digit jump in the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ rankings which will be released today. The government hopes the string of reforms it has initiated would reflect in the ranking. In the 2017 report released last year, India ranked at 130 out of the 190 countries evaluated, improving just one rank from the previous year’s 131.

According to reports, the government has pinned its hopes of improvement on three parameters—‘starting a business’, ‘dealing with construction permits’ and ‘resolving insolvency’—where India was placed 155, 185 and 136 respectively last year.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST), the government’s big-bang reform, will not be counted in this year’s ranking. India ranked a lowly 172 on paying taxes. The GST, which subsumes dozens of taxes and levies, would have improved India’s ranking on this count. The cut-off date for implementing reforms for the study was June 1 while the new tax was imposed on July 1.

India hopes to better its ranking on the three parameters given below:

Dealing with construction permits
India was ranked 185 among 190 nations surveyed on the parameter of getting a construction permit in the rankings last year. Until last year, it took 164 and 213 days in Mumbai and Delhi respectively to get a construction permit. The number of procedures required was as high as 42 and 29 in the two cities last year. The World Bank had then pointed out that India had not managed to shift online its construction permits system.

In July, government officials told a team of the World Bank that India had improved processes for granting construction permits. Now it takes only 60 days following eight online procedures to get a construction permit in Delhi and Mumbai.

Starting a business
In the 2017 report, India was ranked 155 among 190 countries on this parameter. In June, the government conveyed to the World Bank that processes for starting a business in the country had been reduced to five from 14 in the past year. The major improvements are: five procedures—including obtaining DIN, PAN and TAN—merged; processes for employee provident fund moved online; removal of requirement for company seal as well as digital signature; bank acco ..