India jumps 12 notches in 'doing business' ranking...

India has improved its global ranking by 12 points in the World Bank's "Doing Business -- 2008", the fifth edition of its annual report on the ease of doing business in 178 economies.

The country now ranks 120, against 132 last year, but is still behind its 2005 rank of 116.

This year's performance, however, marks a significant improvement over last year, when the country's ranking dropped 16 points over 2005.

That decline had prompted the Centre to initiate a serious exercise aimed at removing bottlenecks in rules and regulations for starting businesses or closing them.

The World Bank has acknowledged the effort, describing India as "the top reformer in trading across borders" in its report released on Wednesday.

Sabine Hertveldt, Investment Policy Specialist, Doing Business Team, World Bank, told Business Standard over email: "Last year, the Indian government had made the reform of business regulations an explicit policy objective, following India's ranking in last year's report. We already start to see some effects but expect to see further improvements in India's aggregate ranking over the next years."

The report said: "Traders can now submit customs declarations and pay customs fees online before the cargo arrives in port. It takes 18 days to meet all the administrative requirements to export. The credit bureau expanded to include payment histories on businesses as well as individuals. And reformers introduced an electronic collateral registry for security."

Analysts drew particular satisfaction from the fact that India has managed to reform much faster than China, as the country's ranking went up a dozen notches, even as China's ranking rose only by nine slots. However, China remains well ahead of India with its overall ranking standing at 83.

The World Bank rankings are based on a set of 10 indicators that include taxation, starting a business and trading across borders.

India emerged as the top reformer in doing trade across borders, where it ranked 79 in 2007, vaulting 63 places. On the parameter of getting credit, India was ranked at 36.

However, India's rankings in the seven other parameters fell, and one was unchanged. In terms of starting a business, the country's rank fell by 18 places to 111 compared to last year.

On the parameter of paying taxes, it slipped seven places to 165 while in terms of registering a property, India's rank stood at 112, a fall of 4 places.


SOURCE: http://www.rediff.com
 
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