Economic Survey 2019-20:Ease of Doing Business

News:The Economic Survey has dedicated a chapter on the Ease of Doing Business in India.

Facts:

Key takeaways:

• In World Bank’s Ease of Business rankings,India has recorded a jump of 14 positions at 63rd rank in 2019 against its rank of 77 in 2018.
• India’s improved ranking was on the back of reforms such as (a)dealing with construction permits (b)trading across borders and (c)resolving insolvency.
• The turnaround time of ships in India has also almost halved to 2.48 days in 2018-19 from 4.67 days in 2010-11.
• However,India still trails in parameters such as Ease of Starting a Business, Registering Property, Paying Taxes and Enforcing Contracts.

Problems in Ease of doing business:

• According to the survey,Delhi requires 26 licences and approvals to open a restaurant while Bengaluru requires 36 and Mumbai needs 22.
• On the other hand,China and Singapore require only four licences to open a restaurant.
• Setting up and operating services or manufacturing business in India face a maze of laws as it has to conform with 6,796 compliance items, which is a tedious and time-consuming task.

Suggestions:

• Focus on reducing time and cost of starting a business in India, especially in the services sector which faces many regulatory hurdles even for routine business.
• Increasing digitalisation and seamlessly integrating multiple agencies onto a single digital platform can further reduce procedural inefficiencies in cross-border trade significantly.
• Streamlining of logistics on Indian seaports needs close inter-ministerial coordination 
• Map out regulatory and process bottlenecks for tourism and manufacturing and correct them at the central, state or municipal levels.