India's rank in "Doing Business Report", released by the World Bank, is unlikely to go up sharply even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target to push the country to the top 50 list in three years.
In its last report, the World Bank had ranked India at 142nd position in its "Ease of Doing Business" index.
Despite several initiatives taken by the Modi government in the past 15 months, the country may not see a major improvement in the ranking in the next report, which will be released in October.
"The World Bank does the ranking based on actual usage of the measures taken by a country. Since it takes a minimum of six months for users to get familiar with the steps taken by the government, we think our actions may not get reflected in this year's ranking," a senior government official told Livemint.
After coming into power in May last year, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has taken various measures to bring in more foreign investment and boost its manufacturing activity through its 'Make in India' initiative.
The government has put a lot on priority on "simplification and rationalisation of existing rules" and making use of information technology (IT) to "make governance more efficient and effective."
Some of the steps taken by the government include doing away with minimum paid-up capital for companies, facilitating the incorporation of companies with one form, and cutting down the documentation work for exports and imports.
From 1 May, the Ministry Of Corporate Affairs started providing one integrated company incorporation form in place of eight forms required earlier, making compliance and reporting procedures easier for businesses.
Meanwhile, Amitabh Kant, secretary of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), said that finding a place in the top 50 is achievable. "Next year, yes, and then you will have to have insolvency laws, you will have to have easy entry and exit. You will have to have better enforcement of contracts, but moving up to 50 in three years is doable, very doable," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has been disputing the methodology used by the World Bank in ranking countries. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament in July last year that the bank ranks countries taking into only those regulations pertaining to small and medium enterprises "but which, owing to its name, often gets mistaken to refer to general business environment".
"The report does not set any measurable targets for improving the ranking of the country," Jaitley said.
