India moved up 14 ranks in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 survey to stand at 63 among 190 countries, making it one of the world’s top 10 most improved countries for the third consecutive time. Singapore retained the second position in the list.
India made trading across borders easier by cutting the costs and time associated with border and documentation requirements, the World Bank said.
China and India were on the top 10 list of governments that have done the most in the past year to improve the ease of doing business in their countries as well.
Last year, India jumped 23 places to reach 77th position. In five years of the Modi government, India’s ranking has improved 79 places – to 63 in 2019 from 142 in 2014 – a record for a major economy.
The World Bank said India conducted four reforms in the 12-month period till May 1. “Among other improvements, India made the process of obtaining a building permit more efficient. In addition, authorities enhanced building quality control in Delhi by strengthening professional certification requirements; importing and exporting also became easier for companies with the creation of a single electronic platform for trade stakeholders and there were upgrades to port infrastructure and improvements to electronic submission of documents," it added.
Singapore, in second, beat out Hong Kong, Denmark and Korea, with the US, Georgia, UK, Norway, and Sweden rounding out the top 10 spots. The top spot went to New Zealand.
Doing Business 2020 measures regulations across 190 economies in 12 business regulatory areas to assess the business environment in each economy.