Its harder to do business in India than Pakistan
According to a new report co-sponsored by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), after conflict ridden Afghanistan, it is hardest to start a new business in India.
"India ranks rather low at 116th - 25 places behind China's 91st ranking - and behind all South Asian countries, except Afghanistan, in the overall ease of doing business. However, India made noteworthy reforms to credit registries and enforcement of collateral law, making it easier for businesses to get new finance. South Asian countries are ranked as follows: Maldives 31, Nepal 55, Pakistan 60, Bangladesh 65, Sri Lanka 75, Bhutan 104, India 116, and Afghanistan 122."
It is humbling to see Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh appear far ahead of the much hyped India and China. My personal experience in starting a new business has not been as dismal as this report makes it out to be. But that is because it is relatively much easier to start a software export oriented business. Government has made special efforts to foster growth of IT industry. But we still have a long way to go as far infrastructure and reduction of paperwork is concerned. There are too many hoops to jump through, tax and accounting laws are extremely complicated and local service providers are not as reliable as one would want them to be. I hope (but I doubt) these reports actually have an impact and shake the government out of inaction and lethargy. The software industry has been blessed by the Indian govt. because it brings in lot of foreign exchange. It is noteworthy how even a little helping hand from the government can spurt so much growth and entreprenurship. I wish the government would look beyond software and ITES industries into other sectors like agriculture and manfacturing.
Comments
i know that india has made a lot of progress in the last 5 years especially showing the second fastest growth in the world after China.reforms may be slow but it is inevitable that things would only get better.it is predicted that by the year 2015 india would be the 5th biggest economy in the world with the current growth rates and by the year 2032 the 4th biggest and finally in 2050 the third.
Posted by: rohit | September 17, 2005 02:16 AM
Rohit,
Read what you wrote. It will take 45 years from today for India to become 3rd biggest economy. Should I really be happy with that stats? More than 100 years to be 3rd class?
You seem happy with this slow progress. Japan is already a world power in tech and Japan did not take 100 years to do that.
And more over there are other countries that are working hard to grow. India and we poeple are still singing the song of ZERO we gave to world which was long time ago.
My question is how much more time we will take to be 100% educated population. Then we will do real progress.
My 2 cents.
Ashish D.
Posted by: Ashish | September 18, 2005 11:32 PM
I agree with Ashish that growth has been slow and when we still lack basic things like electricity, water and literacy, being 4th, 3rd or even the largest economy doesn't count for much. But having said that, we have certainly moved in the right direction in the last 10-15 years. At least the downnward slide seems to have been halted. We are on our way up, but very slowly.
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