Ease of doing business: India, Bahrain, Saudi, Kuwait, Pakistan among top 10 performers

Agencies
October 24, 2019

India has jumped 14 places to take the 63rd position on the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking released on Thursday, figuring among the top 10 performers on the list for the third time in a row mainly due to the successful implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The country was 77th among 190 countries in the previous ranking.

India figured among the top 10 performers on the list for the third time in a row. New Zealand continues to top the global ranking, with Singapore, Hong Kong right behind. Korea is in fifth place and the US on sixth. The ranking comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the World Bank, the IMF and various rating agencies have slashed the country's growth forecasts amid a slowdown in the global economy.

In its 'Doing Business' 2020 report, the World Bank commended the reform efforts undertaken by the country "given the size of India's economy".

"This is the third year in a row that India makes to top 10 in 'Doing Business', which is a success which very few countries have done over the 20 years of the project. Without exception, the other countries that have done this are very small, population-wise, and homogeneous," Simeon Djankov, Director of Development Economics at the World Bank told PTI in an interview.

"India is the first country of its type to achieve that. It has jumped this year by 14 position," he said.

Apart from India, the other countries among the top 10 performers are China (31), Bahrain (43) Saudi Arabia (62), Jordan (75), Kuwait (83), Togo (97), Tajikistan (106), Pakistan (108) and Nigeria (131).

Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' campaign focused on attracting foreign investment, boosting the private sector, manufacturing in particular, and enhancing the country's overall competitiveness, the World Bank said in its report.

The government turned to the 'Doing Business' indicators to show investors India's commitment to reform and to demonstrate tangible progress. In 2015, the government's goal was to join the 50 top economies on the ease of doing business ranking by 2020.

While the competition to move up the ladder would increase and become much tougher, India is on the track to be within top 50 of the Ease of Doing business in the next year or two, Djankov told PTI in response to a question.

And to come under 25 or below 50, the government needs to announce and start implementing next set of ambitious reforms now, as these reforms takes a few years to be realised on the ground, he said.

"The administration's reform efforts targeted all of the areas measured by Doing Business, with a focus on paying taxes, trading across borders, and resolving insolvency. The country has made a substantial leap upward, raising its ease of doing business ranking from 130 in Doing Business 2016 to 63 in Doing Business 2020,” the report said.

One of the main reasons for improvement in India's ranking this year goes to the successful implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the World Bank official said.

"Before the implementation of the reform, it was very burdensome for secured creditors to seize companies in default of their loans," the report said.

"Since its implementation, more than 2,000 companies have used the new law. Of these, about 470 have commenced liquidation and more than 120 have approved reorganization plans, with the remaining cases still pending," it said.

In the past, foreclosure was the most common procedure reported by legal practitioners in both Delhi and Mumbai under the case study assumptions measured by the resolving insolvency indicator set, with an approximate duration of 4.3 years, it said.

"Reorganisation has become the most likely procedure for viable companies as measured by Doing Business, increasing the overall recovery rate from 27 to 72 cents on the dollar," the bank said.

In addition to resolving insolvency, significant improvements were registered in starting business, dealing with construction permits and trading across borders, the report said.

"India made starting a business easier by abolishing filing fees for the SPICe (Simplified Proforma for Incorporating a Company Electronically) company incorporation form, electronic memorandum of association, and articles of association," it said.

Delhi streamlined the process, reduced the time and cost of obtaining construction permits, and improved building quality control by strengthening professional certification requirements. Mumbai streamlined the process of obtaining a building permit and made it faster and less expensive to get a construction permit.

India made trading across borders easier by enabling post clearance audits, integrating trade stakeholders in a single electronic platform, upgrading port infrastructures, and enhancing the electronic submission of documents, the report said.

India was ranked 142nd among 190 nations when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. Four years of reform pushed up India's rank to 100th in 'Doing Business' 2018 report.

This latest edition of the study documents reforms implemented in 10 areas of business activity in 190 economies over a 12-month period ending May 1, 2019.

The 10 areas measured in the report are: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Mar 6: UK stocks fell again on Friday as growing economic risks from the coronavirus outbreak shattered investor confidence, with Britain recording its first death from the pathogen.

A 1.5% fall for the FTSE 100 erased the blue-chip index's gains from earlier this week. Export-heavy companies have now lost over $230 billion in value since the epidemic sparked a worldwide rout last week.

The domestically focussed mid-cap index was down 1.9%.

Cruise operator Carnival dropped 4.2% to its lowest level since 2012, a day after its Grand Princess ocean liner was barred from returning to its home port of San Francisco on virus fears.

Britain said an older person with underlying health problems had succumbed to the flu-like virus on Thursday, while the number of infections jumped to 115.

In company news, drug maker AstraZeneca fell 1% after it said its treatment for a form of bladder cancer failed to meet the main goal of improving overall survival in patients in a late-stage study.

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News Network
July 1,2020

As Peru begins to ease its strict coronavirus lockdown, the country's biggest LGBTQ nightclub opened its doors on Tuesday, but there will be no nighttime revellers; its dance floor will instead be filled with shelves stocked with groceries.

Instead of slinging cocktails at the bar or dancing on stage, ValeTodo Downtown's famed staff of drag queens will sell customers daily household products as the space reopens as a market while nightclubs are ordered to remain closed.

The Peruvian government will lift the lockdown in most regions of the country at the beginning of July but will keep borders closed, as well as nightclubs and bars.

The lockdown has been a struggle for the club's 120 employees like drag queen Belaluh McQueen. Her life completely changed when the government announced the quarantine. Her nights were spent at home, rather than performing as a dancer at the club in vivid-coloured costumes.

"I was very depressed because I have been doing this art for years, but you have to adapt to new challenges for the future," said McQueen, who is identified by her stage name.

Now McQueen is back to work as a grocery store employee, wearing a sequined suit, high heels and a mask. A DJ will play club music as patrons shop. "We have a new job opportunity," McQueen added.

Renamed as Downtown Market, the club, which has been a mainstay hallmark of the local LGBTQ community, ushered in its reopening with an inauguration ceremony.

"Before, I used to come here to dance and have a good time, but now we come to buy," said Alexandra Herrera, a regular attendee of the club. "The thing is to reinvent yourself."

The club's general manager, Claudia Achuy, said that the pandemic impacted the heart of Lima nightlife, but she chose to reopen as a market rather than risk cutting staff. "If we had just stayed as a nightclub we did not have a close horizon or a way of working," Achuy said.

Peru's confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 282,364 with 9,504 associated deaths on Monday, according to government data. It has the second-highest outbreak in Latin America after Brazil, according to a Reuters tally.

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News Network
February 6,2020

Washington, Feb 6: The US has expressed concern over the current situation of religious freedom in India and raised the issue with Indian officials, a senior State Department official has said.

The remarks came in the wake of widespread protests held across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The senior State Department official, on condition of anonymity, said that he has met with officials in India about what is taking place in the nation and expressed concern.

"We are concerned about what's taking place in India. I have met with the Indian foreign minister. I've met with the Indian ambassador (to express my concern)," the official, who was recently in India, told reporters on Wednesday.

The US has also "expressed desire first to try to help and work through some of these issues", the official said as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched a 27-nation International Religious Freedom Alliance.

"To me, the initial step we try to do in most places is say what can we do to be of help you work through an issue to where there's not religious persecution. That's the first step, is just saying can we work with you on this," the official said.

India maintains that the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities.

It is widely acknowledged that India is a vibrant democracy where the Constitution provides protection of religious freedom, and where democratic governance and rule of law further promote and protect fundamental rights, a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law will not deny any citizenship rights, but has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.

Defending the CAA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month said that the law is not about taking away citizenship, it is about giving citizenship.

"We must all know that any person of any religion from any country of the world who believes in India and its Constitution can apply for Indian citizenship through due process. There's no problem in that," he said.

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