Previous Year Question
India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’ is sometimes seen in the news. Which of the following has declared that ranking?
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
World Economic Forum
World Bank
World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
The Ease of Doing Business ranking was published by the World Bank Group through its annual Doing Business Report.
The Doing Business Project was launched in 2003. It was designed to compare business regulations and their practical effects on small and medium-sized domestic firms across different economies.
Principal indicators
In its final form, the project primarily evaluated the business-regulatory environment through ten areas:
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Minority Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
These indicators examined factors such as the number of procedures, time, cost, legal rights and regulatory quality.
A higher rank indicated that an economy’s regulatory environment was considered comparatively more conducive to starting and operating a business. However, the index did not measure every aspect of an economy, such as macroeconomic stability, market size, labour skills, security or corruption.
Examination of the options:
The OECD publishes several economic and governance indicators, but it did not publish the Doing Business ranking.
The World Economic Forum was associated with indices such as the Global Competitiveness Index.
The World Bank published the Doing Business Report and ranking.
The WTO administers international trade rules and agreements; it did not publish this ranking.
India’s performance
Doing Business 2020 was the last complete report published under the old framework. In that report:
India was ranked 63rd.
India’s score was 71.0.
India had been ranked 142nd in Doing Business 2014.
It therefore improved by 79 positions over that period.
New Zealand occupied the first position in Doing Business 2020.
Current position (2026): On 16 September 2021, the World Bank Group announced the discontinuation of the Doing Business Report. The decision followed internal reviews concerning data irregularities in Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020.
Consequently, the old Ease of Doing Business ranking is no longer published in the same form.
The World Bank subsequently introduced the Business Ready—B-READY project. The first B-READY 2024 Report covered 50 economies. The new framework measures not only the formal simplicity of regulations but also their actual implementation and the public services available to businesses.
B-READY has three principal pillars:
Regulatory Framework: Quality of rules and regulations governing businesses.
Public Services: Government services supporting regulatory compliance and business activity.
Operational Efficiency: Practical efficiency and time involved in using regulations and public services.