India has jumped thirty places in the ranking for Ease of Doing Business that is conducted annually by the World Bank. India’s ranking currently is a 100. Over the last five years India has hovered around the 130-140 mark with no significant changes in position until the substantial improvement shown this year.

Interestingly, India is the only large country to record a shift of this magnitude this year. This is a boost to the Narendra Modi Government’s push for reform - some of those reforms like demonetisation and the imposition of GST have been quite drastic in nature. More improvement can be expected in coming years given the structural nature of the reforms enacted or underway.

Three parameters on which India has improved which made this jump in ranking possible are resolving insolvency, protecting minority investors and the improvement of the tax system.

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, shared the credit - saying, "Historic jump in 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings is the outcome of the all-round & multi-sectoral reform push of Team India.”

Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley said, ”We jumped over 30 places in three years, and as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said about setting a target to get among the top 50... I believe it is eminently doable.”

"If we see continued leadership and coordination, we would expect India to continue to make good progress in coming years,” opined Annette Dixon, VP of World Bank operations in South Asia.

Despite the substantial progress on many fronts, including one that measures how quickly someone can obtain electricity, India still has a way to on measures such as, ‘Starting a business’, ‘Enforcing contracts’ and ‘Dealing with construction permits’. In fact, time taken to enforce a contract is longer today at 1,445 days than it was 15 years ago - 1,420 days

About the World Bank Report report: Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs, a World Bank Group flagship publication, is the 15th in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time.