oppn parties India Improves in Ease Of Doing Business, But Is It Enough?

News Snippets

  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
  • IPL: records tumble as SRH beat MI in a high-scoring match. SRH score 277/3 with 18 sixes and Mumbai score 246 with 20 sixes to fall short by 31 runs. Atotal of 38 sixes, highest in an IPL match were hit and both teams combined to score 523 runs, the highest aggregate in an IPL match
  • Amul will launch fresh milk in the US
  • IPL: RCB beat Punjab by 4 wickets as Kohli and Karthik shine with the bat
  • India strongly objected to German foreign office remarks over the arrest of delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, called it "biased assumptions"
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
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India Improves in Ease Of Doing Business, But Is It Enough?

By Ashwini Agarwal

In advance information before the Ease of Doing Business Index is published in October, the World Bank has indicated that India is among the top 20 most improved nations list. The bank has indicated that India has improved the most in four areas that count in the final rankings - starting a business, resolving insolvency, trading across borders and construction permits.

India was ranked 77 in the 2018 list. But it stood at 137 in starting a business, at 52 in construction permits, at 80 in trading across borders and at 108 in resolving insolvency. It is clear that the policies of the government regarding the GST, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the changes to the Companies Act have contributed to the improvement.

But if one goes through the ranking parameters, it is obvious that India still needs to do a lot to improve three major hindrances to business - registering property (166), paying taxes (121) and enforcing contracts (163).

Let us first take up the problem of enforcing contracts. The legal system in India is plagued with delays and it takes ages to get a verdict. Although there was the talk of commercial courts speeding up the process, not much has been heard of them since. This is one area where India has to improve a lot if it wishes to attract FDI. Commercial courts must be set up fast and the arbitration process must be strengthened to resolve commercial disputes.

Registering property is related to land reforms and easy conversion of land is not always available to those wishing to set up industries. Although land is a state matter, reforms are overdue and it seems that there is no political will in tackling this sensitive matter.

When the final list comes out, Indian might move up by 5 to 10 ranks. There will be a celebration in New Delhi. But the fact remains that for an economy aspiring to be the best in the world, a rank of 65 or 70 is shameful. We must be right up there in the top 10. The government must work to cut the red tape and make doing business easy.