Mobile users increase by 25 per cent
New Delhi: The net additions in mobile customers for the month of August have jumped by around 25 per cent. In August all GSM companies added more than 14 lakh new customers. The biggest gainer is BSNL with 6.28 lakh new customers.

However, the story is not that rosy for the CDMA mobile segment. The total addition in August of CDMA mobile customers has just been around 2.5 lakhs.

Interestingly the Tatas have lost quite a bit of ground witnessing negative growth.
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World Bank: India among top ten reforming nations
New Delhi: Although India has managed to make it to the list of the top 10 reforming nations in the world, it still languishes at the bottom quartile among 145 nations surveyed on the ease of doing business, according to a World Bank Group report released in Washington today.

This, according to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation's second annual business-regulation survey titled `Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth', is despite India making the most progress among South Asian nations in improving its investment climate during the last year.

But, interestingly, the list of top 10 reforming nations consists of eight European countries, with India and Columbia, being the only non-European nations making up the list.

In case of India, the good news is that businesses have better access to finance, as compared to countries such as China. The report, which lauds India's efforts at enforcing debt contracts and bankruptcy laws, strikes a note of caution when it comes to the 'heavy regulatory burden on business' existing here.

The report, which benchmarks regulatory performance and reforms in 145 countries, shows a widening gap between rich and poor nations on the quality of business regulation - an important factor in economic growth. For instance, the survey suggests that for entrepreneurs in poor nations it is twice as hard to start, operate or close a business in comparison to those in rich nations. Also, businesses in poor nations have less than half the property rights protections available to businesses in rich nations.

According to the report, New Zealand made it the easiest to start and operate businesses, closely followed by the US. Among the 20 countries where excess regulation most stifles business development, 80 per cent are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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