Ease of Doing Business: India
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2013
Delhi easiest place to start a business in India: World Bank study
PTI | Oct 30, 2013 [1]
In the 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking of 189 economies, India has dropped from 131 spot to 134 position, while Singapore continues to remain at the top.
WASHINGTON: It is easiest to start a business in New Delhi within India, while Hyderabad is the fastest for closing an enterprise, says a World Bank study.
On the other hand, Kolkata is the toughest place for closing a business among 17 cities, while Bengaluru requires the maximum efforts to start a company, it says.
The city-wise details are part of separate 216-page report by World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) on doing business in India, which was on Tuesday ranked 134th globally in terms of ease of doing business.
According to the report, it requires 32 days for starting a business in New Delhi, while it takes 40 days to register a company in Bengaluru. Besides, a total of 11 procedures (any interaction of the company founders with external parties such as government agencies, lawyers and auditors) is required to register a firm in New Delhi, while 13 procedures need to be followed in case of Bengaluru, the study said.
In terms of ease of doing business within India, New Delhi is followed by Patna, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Bhubaneshwar. When it comes to closing a business, Hyderabad is best place as it takes an average of seven years to wind up an enterprise, while Kolkata is the toughest place for closing a firm by taking an average of 10.8 years.
Among other top five cities, where closing a business is easy are Ludhiana, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneshwar.
In the 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking of 189 economies, India has dropped from 131 spot to 134 position, while Singapore continues to remain at the top.
The rankings are based on various parameters including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
Overall, India's business environment has come for criticism on various issues in the past including in Vodafone tax dispute.
2014:India Ranks 142
Jan 17 2015
Pradeep Thakur
Ranks 142 on bank's ease of doing business list
Large pendency of cases in Indian courts and non-implementation of judicial reforms have been cited by the World Bank as one of the key reasons for India's low rank on the Bank's Index of `Ease of Doing Business'.India was ranked 142 among 189 countries last year. In a memorandum to the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) under the commerce ministry, the World Bank suggested linking judges' appraisal with reduction of pendency in courts.Sources said the matter was discussed at a meeting organized by the DIPP recently to refine the performance evaluation system of judges to link their performance to the resolution of specific bottlenecks as suggested by the World Bank.
The DIPP is also coordinating implementation of the `Make in India' campaign of the Modi government.
Interestingly, the World Bank suggested that there was an urgent need for reforms in the system of performance appraisal of judicial officers in the country to bring about uniformity and infuse objectivity and standardization.
The Bank cited an example from Malaysia where implementation of a reform index for judges improved case disposal rates and reduced backlog by 50% in less than three years. Another exam ple was cited from the United Arab Emirates, where rewards were instituted for the best performers.
According to the memorandum, the liberal grant of adjournments was an often cited reason for delays in court proceedings in India. It recommended monitoring the number of times judges granted adjournments and the reasons for granting them. “This can be done through case management systems and linked to performance management evaluations,“ it said.
It asked the government to ensure that adjournments were not indefinite by setting a time limit.
Just a few weeks ago, the Modi government had written to chief justices of all 24 high courts to ensure speedier settlement of commercial and other disputes for creating a conducive investment climate and success of `Make in India' campaign.
Ease of business: enforcing contracts
May 25 2015
Tedious legal process top hurdle to ease of doing biz
Sidhartha
The Narendra Modi administration's focus on ease of doing business is expected to help India report significant gains when the new rankings are released but enforcing contracts is one area where the government seems to have run up against legal hurdles, resulting in fewerthan-expected moves to simplify the cumbersome process. When it comes to enforcing contracts, India ranked a lowly 186th among 189 countries, with only Angola, Bangladesh and Timor-Leste placed lower.While officials say that the attitudes have a major role to play , experts reckon that the Indian legal process is long and cumbersome. World Bank arm International Finance Corp's Doing Business report measures the efficiency of the judicial system in resolving commercial disputes based on the time taken, the procedures involved and the cost incurred. On an average, it costs almost 40% of the claim, involves some 46 procedures and takes almost four years, 1,420 days to be precise, in Mumbai or Delhi. What's more, the Doing Business report has not recorded a single reform move in India for the last eight years.
As a result, when the government prepared a detailed blueprint for all parameters, eight steps were planned, beginning with commercial courts in Delhi and Mumbai two centres which are studied by IFC team. But apart from the commercial courts and the recent Supreme Court order paving the way for the establishment of the National Company Law Tribunal, things have moved rather slowly . The moves to be initiated include enabling district courts to completely switch over to e-management of commercial cases, which includes e-filing of complaints, e-service of summons and availability of digitally signed judgments on the web. The plan also included sensitizing district courts about exploring mediation, arbitration and conciliation under section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Similarly , there should be a limited number of adjournments so that cases are decided in a shorter span of time.
Sources in the government acknowledge that there has been little progress on several of the proposals that have been discussed over the past year to improve India's ranking on enforcing contracts. And, it is unlikely that the IFC team misses that, making it tougher for India to make significant gains in the Ease of Doing Business Rankings, sources acknowledged.
