The drop in India's ranking from last year's 140 is mainly because other
nations have performed much better, bank officials said.
In the 2014 report, India had 52.78 points and in this year's report it has 53.97 points.
The
latest ranking, however, does not take into account the latest slew of
measures taken by Modi Government to make India a business friendly
destination.
"We do not want to send the impression that the drop
in India's ranking is connected in any way with the current political
situation (government)," Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global
Indicators Group, Development Economics, World Bank Group said.
"It
is absolutely true that the new government of Mr Modi has made it very
clear that they see the creation of a better investment climate and a
more friendly business friendly environment in India a top priority.
However, it is important to remember that the new Government did not
come into office until the second half of May," he said.
Highly
appreciative of the steps taken by the new Indian Government, World Bank
officials, however, asserted that there was a very high likelihood of
India significantly jumping up the ladder in the next ease of doing
business.
Singapore with 88.27 points occupies the top position
in the ease of doing business followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong,
Denmark and South Korea.
Among other major countries, the US has
been ranked seventh, Britain (eight), China (90), Sri Lanka (99), Nepal
(108), Maldives (116), Bhutan (125), and Pakistan (128).
In a
conference call with reporters, World Bank officials cautioned against
linking the latest ranking with the steps taken by the new Indian
Government.
Noting that the cut off of ease of doing business is
May 31st, Lopez said whatever the government would do and whatever is in
the pipeline is going to have an impact on these indicators only next
year.
When asked about the ambition of the new Indian Government
to move up the ladder and gain a ranking within top 50 countries, Lopez
said, "There is no reason, why not?".
"Absolutely, it can be
done. There are many examples of countries who through focused efforts,
through intelligently designed reforms have managed to make very
substantial improvement," he said.
Though India did drop a little
bit in terms of its ranking, the ease of doing business has improved
over the last 12 months, he said.
Rita Ramalho, lead author of
the Doing Business report, World Bank said India's ranking dropped,
despite improvement in its business environment, because other countries
improved.
"There is a continuous improvement across the world. India improved, but others improved at a faster pace," Ramalho said.
Upadhyay, who had a round of consultation with central leadership, has
not included any MLA in his team and given important roles to
councillors instead.
