India ranked 134th in World Bank’s list of business-friendly countries

India ranks 134th in a list of 189 countries on the ease of navigating regulatory hurdles for local entrepreneurs to expand their business activity, according to the latest World Bank report, Doing Business, released today.

Against this China is ranked 96th and Sri Lanka 85th,  while even land-locked Nepal is ahead of India at 105 in the report that ranks governments and countries according to the ease of business.

Malaysia is ranked 6th.

Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Georgia, Norway and the United Kingdom in the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments.

Governments around the world significantly stepped up their pace of improving business regulations in 114 economies last year – an 18 per cent jump from the previous year, the report said, adding that a study of regulations for small and medium-size enterprises finds that the pace of business regulatory reform continued to accelerate following the financial crisis of 2008 - 09.

The report says that if economies around the world were to follow best practices in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45 million fewer days each year satisfying bureaucratic requirements.

''A better business climate that enables entrepreneurs to build their businesses and reinvest in their communities is key to local and global economic growth,'' said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

''Doing Business shows that economies with better business regulations are more likely to empower local entrepreneurs to create more jobs – another step in the right direction toward ending extreme poverty by 2030.''

The report finds many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa engaged in reforms aimed at reducing burdensome regulations and building stronger legal institutions.

In 2012-13, more than twice as many African economies in the region undertok reforms, compared to 2005.

Out of the 20 economies that have most improved business regulation since 2009, nine are in Sub-Saharan Africa - Benin, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The high-income economies of the OECD, which have the best performance across most areas measured by Doing Business, focused their reform efforts in the past year on easing business entry and exit and on improving tax administration.

Europe and Central Asia continued its strong pace of regulatory reform, with 19 economies implementing 65 reforms.

Among the BRICS economies - Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa - Russia made the most progress.

As governments in the Middle East and North Africa grapple with political and civil unrest, they continue to face complex challenges in improving the business regulatory environment, the report finds.

The Syrian Arab Republic was the economy whose regulatory environment deteriorated the most in 2012 - 13.

Since 2005, the report finds, some economies have emerged as regional champions in regulatory reform efforts - for example, China for the East Asia and the Pacific region, Colombia for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rwanda for Sub-Saharan Africa, and Poland for OECD high-income economies.

In addition to the global rankings, Doing Business reports the economies that have improved the most on the indicators measured since the previous year. The 10 economies topping that list this year are Ukraine, Rwanda, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, Cote d'Ivoire, Burundi, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Guatemala.

Yet, the report said, five of this year's top improvers - Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, the Philippines and Ukraine - are still in the bottom half of the global ranking on the ease of doing business.

Doing Business presented data for the first time this year on four economies - Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan. About the Doing Business report series.

The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 189 economies.

The report has documented 238 business regulatory reforms worldwide last year.

Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labour force, or the resilience of financial systems.