The Commerce Ministry is planning to appoint a consulting agency for assistance in improving India’s business climate and bettering its ranking in World Bank’s ease of doing business index.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under the Ministry, said the government has undertaken series of reforms to make India an easier place to do business in.

But there is still need to do a lot more to achieve the vision of becoming top country in ease of doing business (EoDB), it said in its request for proposal for “assistance in ease of doing business initiatives and for improving country’s ranking in World Bank doing business index”.

“There are major requirements of business reform initiatives to be undertaken by the concerned Ministries and departments for promoting EoDB in India,” it added. It said in light of experience of last two years with the reform and ranking process, DIPP is expected to play a proactive role and provide insights to concerned ministries and state governments to ensure effective implementation of reforms.

“In this regard, DIPP intends to on-board an agency to assist in improving the business climate in the country by ensuring effective and on ground reform implementation,” it added. The main objective of the assignment is to assist central and state government ministries/departments/agencies to implement the business reforms in order to improve India’s ranking to top 50 countries in next year’s World Bank Doing Business assessment.

The World Bank conducts annual study in 190 economies to assess the business climate in countries. The business climate is evaluated in terms of how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. The study is conducted across 10 indicators to arrive at a ranking.

“It is observed that while many reforms were undertaken by central and state governments, the on ground impact on business remained minimal. Primarily, this has caused World Bank, in their Doing Business Report, 2017, to rank us at 130 out of 190 economies,” it said.

In light of this, it is required that focused efforts are made in each of the parameters to realise the top 50 ranking for India, it said. “The department proposes to engage a reputed consultancy organisation to assist in improving the business climate in the country by ensuring effective and on ground reform implementation on the 10 indicators,” it said.

Source: Money Control