India improved its ease of doing business ranking last year–moving up from 131 to 130 in a list of 190 countries–by reducing the average time taken to start an enterprise and secure a permanent electricity connection, according to 2016 World Bank data. However, an IndiaSpend analysis of these data shows that India still ranks among the worst performers on other key parameters. Using five parameters, IndiaSpend picked 10 nations across seven regions to compare India’s ease of doing business–south and east Asia (including China), developed countries, sub-Saharan Africa, lower middle income countries such as India (with per capita incomes between $1026 and $4035) and the European Union. In most indicators, India ranked low, coming closest to sub-Saharan African countries.
The five indicators are all related to the time taken to get key tasks completed. Those include: (1) starting a business, (2) building a warehouse and equip the industrial premises with water and sewerage connection, telephone line and safety measures, (3) getting permanent provision of electricity, (4) completing legal procedures and (5) resolving insolvency if a business fails. We compared these parameters in India with three country groups over the decade 2007 to 2016: (1) neighbouring Asian countries (2) developed countries and (3) differently developed country groups.