Pakistan, Nepal and Sri lanka are better placed than India
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains committed to transforming the business environment as part of his "Make in India" campaign to woo foreign investors, the World Bank has come out with yet another unflattering report, ranking India 142nd in the world when it comes to "ease of doing business".
In fact India is way behind Pakistan (ranked 128th), Nepal (108th) and Sri lanka (99th) in the list of 189 nations.
Releasing its "Doing Business 2015" report, the World Bank speaks of just a marginal improvement in India's performance - from 52.78 points last year to 53.97 points this year. India's ranking itself is down by two slots: from 140 last year to 142 among the 189 countries surveyed. The chart is led by Singapore. The United States is ranked seventh and China 90th.
Significantly, a senior Bank official conceded that the report, based on figures as of May 31, hardly take into account the changes proposed or announced by the Narendra Modi Government that took office only in the second-half of May.
We do not want to send the impression that the drop in India's ranking is connected in any way with the current political situation," World Bank's Director for Global Indicators Augusto lopez-Claros said, indicating that any changes set in motion by the new government would be reflected only in the report released next year.
Modi has gone public with statements that he would strive to bring India's ease of doing business ranking within the top 50 nations. The Bank director speaks of examples of many countries that have moved up the table in a big way through focused efforts and intelligently-designed reforms.
India, according to the report, has done quite well under some heads such as protecting minority investors (ranked 7th) and in providing credit (36th). But it lags far behind in several key areas such as starting a business (ranked 158th), dealing with construction permits (184th), enforcing contracts (186th), getting electricity (137th) and paying taxes (156th).
The World Bank report came on a day when the US International Trade Commission (USITC) announced that it has launched a fresh investigation to examine changes made by the Modi government to India's trade and investment policies.
The investigation, Trade and Investment Policies in India, 2014-2015, was requested jointly by the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance in a letter sent towards the end of September, just ahead of Modi's US visit.
"Given the recent national elections in India and the formation of a new Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government, and our interest in receiving the most comprehensive and up-to-date information possible, we now request that the Commission conduct a second investigation concerning India's industrial policies that discriminate against US trade and investment since the first ITC investigation," the Congressional committees had stated.
This would be the second investigation by USITC dealing with India, the earlier one having been launched last year. A report on this investigation, dealing with the practices under the UPA Government, is expected to be submitted to the US Congress by December 15.