NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: Keen to improve its performance in the World Bank’s index measuring ‘ease of doing business’, India has reached out to countries such as Singapore, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Mexico to gain from the expertise in their respective areas of excellence.
Top officials, experts and policy makers from countries that ace the World Bank’s indicators used for ranking countries — such as access to credit, issuing construction permits, access to electricity and property registration — will be in New Delhi this month to give lessons to both the Centre and States on the measures to be taken to improve their performance.
“Although India has shown improvement in its ranking on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, it is far from the best. We are getting the best of the best in various categories to show us what all India needs to do to reach their levels of efficiency,” an official from the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) told BusinessLine.
For instance, Mexico, which has a federal system like India, will give tips on how to carry out business regulation reforms in a federal country. Senior officials from the land regulation department of the UK will share ways in which India can bring about reforms in land regulation, the official said.
Representatives from both Australia and Mexico will give presentations and suggestions on how to improve handing out construction permits while Saudi Arabia will share tips on ease of getting credit.
Canadian experts on start-ups will share their experience in reforming business start-ups and providing unique business identities to entities.
“The countries that we have invited to come to India and share their expertise are the best in their respective areas. Not only will they share their experience, they will also give concrete recommendations based on the conditions in our country,” the official said, adding that experts from the World Bank will also chip in.
Officials from both States and the Centre will attend the three-day meeting. States have so far only interacted with the Centre to bring about changes in their rules and regulations in order to make them more business friendly and this will be the first time that many of them would be interacting with international experts on the matter.
Last year, India’s ranking on the index measuring ease of doing business improved four notches to 130 (compared to the previous year’s revised ranking of 134) in a total of 189 countries. China ranked 84th in the index.
World Bank ranks countries based on about 10 broad parameters which include starting a business, getting construction permits, accessing electricity, payment of taxes, enforcement of contracts and getting credit.
Recently, India has taken a number of measures to improve ease of doing business such as enacting the insolvency and bankruptcy code, launching an e-biz portal for one-stop shop for clearances for starting a business and bringing down the documents required to start a business.