India Points Out Factual Errors In World Bank’s Ease Of Doing Business Report

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, in a communication to the World Bank, had flagged factual errors in its Ease of Doing Business Report that assesses investment and business climate around the world, the Economic Times has reported. Despite a slew of reforms, India’s ranking in the business index improved by just one notch to 130 in 2017 from a revised rank of 131 last year.

"We have communicated to them certain factual errors in their assessment," a government official was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Although the communication is part of the assessment process, India decided to break away from the practice of yes-and-no answers and has explained to the World Bank its viewpoint on the errors and why the body should take into consideration recent reforms undertaken by the government to improve business climate.

According to the daily, India wants the World Bank to update its findings related to arbitration and settlement of commercial disputes in the country following changes to the framework for such redressal. Under the “enforcing contracts” indicator, one of the 10 parameters that the World Bank uses in its assessment, India is currently ranked 172 out of 190 countries.

To improve business climate in the country, the government has in the past three years taken a host of measures including the introduction of a single company registration window for all clearances, allotment of permanent account number and tax identification number.

The government has also come up with an eight-point strategy to improve the ranking. The strategy focuses on improving regulatory processes, policies, practices and procedures spread across 12 areas including labour regulation enablers, contract enforcement, registering property, inspection reform enablers, and single window system, land availability and allotment.