Arun Jaitley hails India's rise in 'Ease of Doing Business' index, targets top 50

India jumped from 100 to 77 in the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' index and is ahead of neighbours China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said India's rise to the 77th spot in World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' index is a result of dedicated work done by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and predicted that the country will be in the top 50 in the time to come.

The latest 'Ease of Doing Business' index taken out by World Bank showed India had jumped 23 places from 100 last year to take the 77th spot. "When we came to power, the PM had said that we have to come within the top 50 ranks. Today, we are at rank 77. DIPP has worked on how to up the ranking on each criterion. You have to crack the code and try and improve on the criterion in which we lack," said Jaitley during a press briefing. "The ease of doing business is to maximise the governance with minimum government personnel and procedures, and the investment environment is guided by this."

Reforms undertaken by NDA govt. led by PM Shri @narendramodi ji are continuously giving results. India advanced 23 spots to 77th place in the World Bank 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking. India is continuing its reform agenda & is in the league of global top improvers. — Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) October 31, 2018

India has made tremendous improvements in the index since being placed 142 in 2014. Jaitley termed it 'record improvement' and said that it is a continuous endeavour of the government to further improve India's rank. The country fares far better than its neighbours in the index with Bangladesh at 177, Pakistan at 147, Sri Lanka at 111 and Nepal at 105. Only Bhutan fares better than every other country in south Asia and is placed 75 - two spots better than India - in a list of 190 countries all over the world. China is ranked 78.

World Bank noted that the countries to have improved their rankings significantly this year - apart from India - are Afghanistan, Dibouti, Azerbaijan, Togo, Kenya, Turkey, Rwanda and Cote d'Ivore.