India ranks 130th in 2017 Ease of Doing Business index

India has been placed at 130th position among the 190 countries in the recently released World Bank’s ease of doing business index for the year 2017. The index was released as part of the World Bank’s annual report Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All. This report had revised India’s rank to 131 from earlier 130th for the year 2016. Thus, India has improved its place by one spot in the 2017 index and its place remained unchanged from the previous original ranking of 130 in the year 2016. What is ease of doing business index? 




The ease of doing business index is annually released by World Bank in its Ease of Doing Business Report. It was introduced in 2004. In this index, ranking of country is based on index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 indicators each having equal weightage. A higher ranking of country in this list means that its regulatory environment is more conducive and favourable for the starting and operation of firms. 10 indicators are starting business, getting electricity, dealing with construction permits, registering property, protecting investors, getting credit, employing workers, trading across borders, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

Key Highlights of 2017 Report 

Top 10 Countries: 

New Zealand (1st), Singapore (2nd), Denmark (3rd), Hong Kong (4th), South Korea (5th), Norway (6th), UK (7th), US (8th), Sweden (9th) and Macedonia (10th). BIRCS Nations: India ranks lowest in Doing Business among the BRICS nations. Russia (40), South Africa (74), China (78), Brazil (123) and India (130). India’s Neighbours: Bhutan (73), China (78), Nepal (107), Sri Lanka (110), Pakistan (144) and Bangladesh (176). 


India Related Facts: In the ranking, India has made a substantial improvement in some areas such as electricity connection. But it has sliped in other areas, including payment of taxes and enforcing contracts. India has embarked on a fast-paced reform path and has acknowledged a number of substantial improvements. Some the improvement mentioned are electricity connections to businesses, paying taxes, electronic system for paying employee state insurance contributions, the Companies (Amendment) Act, electronic filing of integrated customs declarations, passage of the commercial courts and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.


Global Facts: Economies in all regions are implementing reforms easing the process of doing business. However, Europe and Central Asia continues to be the region with the highest share of economies implementing at least one reform. 96% of economies in the Europe and Central region have implemented at least one business regulatory reform. A record 137 economies around the world have adopted key reforms that make it easier to start and operate small and medium-sized businesses. Developing countries carried out more than 75% of the 283 reforms in the past year, with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for over one-quarter of all reforms.


India has been ranked 87th out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2016. India has climbed 21 spots from 108th position in 2015. 



The report measures gender gap as progress towards parity between men and women in four areas (i) Educational attainment, (ii) Health and survival, (iii) Economic opportunity and (iv) Political empowerment. Key Highlights of the report Top 5 Countries in 2016 Report: Iceland (1st), Finland (2nd), Norway (3rd), Sweden (4th) and Rwanda (5th). India related facts: In this edition India has overtaken China which is ranked 99th. The improvement in India’s ranking is driven largely by major improvements in education, where it has managed to close its gap entirely in primary and secondary education. In case of education attainment, India has made considerable strides moving up from 125th rank in 2015 to 113th in 2016. On economic participation and opportunity too, India has moved up to 136th rank in 2016, from 139th in the year 2015. 


On health and survival, India has made little progress moving up by one place to 142nd rank compared to 141st in 2015. On political empowerment, India continues to be ranked 9th in the world. Overall Global Facts: The global march towards parity in key economic pillar has slowed down dramatically. This gap stands at 59% which is now larger than at any point since 2008. As a consequence, global economic gender gap will now not close until year 2186. Comment The gender gap in India has narrowed down. But India still remains one of the worst countries in the world for women in terms of labour force participation, income levels as well as health and survival. India has closed its gender gap by 2% in a year (2016), but much work remains to be done to empower women in the economic sphere. India continues to rank third-lowest in the world on Health and Survival, remaining the world’s least-improved country over the past decade.


The fourth edition of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Military Exercise ‘MITRA SHAKTI 2016’ began at Sinha Regimental Centre in Ambepussa, Sri Lanka. 


The main focus of this edition of joint exercise is to enhance inter-operability while carrying out Counter Terrorism (CT) and Counter Insurgency (CI) operations under the UN Mandate. Key Facts Under this mandate the comprehensive training programme spanning fourteen days (24 October to 06 November 2016) has been drawn up. In this edition of exercise, India is being represented by a platoon from the RAJPUTANA RIFLES Regiment and Sri Lankan Army is represented by a platoon from the Sinha Regiment. 


The bilateral military exercise will be conducted in two stages in which both armies will get familiar each other’s respective methodology of such operations, arms and equipment and the command and control systems. It will also graduate towards tactical understanding to enhance inter-operability while carrying out Counter Terrorism (CT)/ Counter Insurgency (CI) operations. Background Mitra Shakti series of bilateral exercises is one of the major bilateral defence cooperation initiatives between India and Sri Lanka since 2013. The previous edition of the exercise between both nations was successfully conducted in September 2015 at Pune, Mahrashtra.

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