India improves it Doing Business ranking, but long way to go

The report covers 178 economies. India now ranks 120, against 132 last year. However, the ranking is still behind its 2005 rank of 116.

This years performance, however, marks a significant improvement over last year, when the countrys 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.

Analysts point out that while things are improving for the better, to encourage entrepreneurship and cross boarder deals, India will have to continue its focus on reforms.

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

In the report, The World Bank has acknowledged the effort, describing India as the top reformer in trading across borders. 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.

India emerged as the top reformer in doing trade across borders, where it ranked 79 in 2007, moving up by 63 places. Given the finance boom, on the parameter of getting credit, India was ranked at 36.

However, not all is well. Indias rankings in the seven other parameters fell and one was unchanged. For example, in terms of starting a business, the countrys rank fell by 18 places to 111 compared to last year.