‘We Can Make It To Top 50 In Ease Of Doing Business Rankings’: Arun Jaitley Says Impossible Now Looks Possible

Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley commented that India’s aim to break into top 50 ranks of World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) report seems feasible after it secured the seventy-seventh rank in recent report, Economic Times reported. India has jumped 23 ranks in comparison to last year.

“India, during the ten years of the UPA, has witnessed a high level of corruption, policy paralysis and abandonment of all reforms. UPA-II, for its five-year tenure, witnessed a global ranking 134, 132, 132, 134 and finally 142. This was UPA’s miserable track record. India was the most difficult to do business with. Investors were wary of coming to India. On the contrary, there was a reverse flight of capital from India by the investors,” Jaitley wrote in his blog post on Facebook.

The jump follows a similar 30-place improvement that India posted in last year’s rankings. The areas India excels in are Protecting Minority Investors (ranked 7), Getting Credit (ranked 22) and Getting Electricity (ranked 24).

“ We are still 27 positions away from the target. The impossible now looks plausible”, the finance minister wrote in his post. Under the 'Dealing with Construction Permits' category, the country has registered a jump of 129 places - from 181 in the last year’s rankings to 52 this year.

The EoDB rankings are posted by the World Bank which rates countries’ business environment and an improvement in the rankings comes as a huge shot in the arm for the ruling Narendra Modi government. The World Bank has given a thumbs-up to the government’s business reforms agenda in a statement.