New Delhi, Nov 1 (KNN) As India jumped 23 places to 77th rank in the World Bank’s global Ease of Doing Business rankings, an achievement which would certainly raise the country’s attractiveness for investors, let’s have a look at all the reforms undertaken by India in the last two years.

The report released lists India and China as the two large economies which are among the 10 biggest reformers among 190 countries.

New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark were on top of the list. Among the BRICS countries, Russia and China were ranked higher.

The Business Reforms in India, according to Doing Business Report in 2019 and 2018 are:

According to Doing Business 2019

Starting a Business: India made starting a business easier by fully integrating multiple application forms into a general incorporation form. India also replaced the value added tax with the GST (Goods and Services Tax) for which the registration process is faster. At the same time, Mumbai abolished the practice of site inspections for registering companies under the Shops and Establishments Act.

Dealing with Construction Permits: India streamlined the process of obtaining a building permit and made it faster and less expensive to obtain a construction permit. It also improved building quality control by introducing decennial liability and insurance. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Getting Electricity: The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission reduced charges for low voltage connections. Getting electricity was also made easier in Delhi through a reduction in the time for the utility to carry out the external connection works.

Getting Credit: India strengthened access to credit by amending its insolvency law. Secured creditors are now given absolute priority over other claims within insolvency proceedings. This reform affects both Delhi and Mumbai.

Paying Taxes: India made paying taxes easier by replacing many indirect taxes with a single indirect tax, the GST, for the entire country. India also made paying taxes less costly by reducing the corporate income tax rate and the employees’ provident funds scheme rate paid by the employer. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Trading across Borders: India reduced the time and cost to export and import through various initiatives, including the implementation of electronic sealing of containers, the upgrading of port infrastructure and allowing electronic submission of supporting documents with digital signatures. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Labor Market Regulation: India (Mumbai) changed regulations pertaining to weekly holiday work, overtime hours and paid annual leave.

According to Doing Business 2018

Starting a Business: India made starting a business faster by merging the applications for the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and the Tax Account Number (TAN), and by improving the online application system. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai. Mumbai also made starting a business faster by merging the applications for the value-added tax and the profession tax.

Dealing with Construction Permits: India made dealing with construction permits less cumbersome by implementing an online system that has streamlined the process at the Municipality of New Delhi and Municipality of Greater Mumbai. The online system has streamlined the process of obtaining a building permit, thereby reducing the number of procedures and time required to obtain a building permit in India.

Getting Credit: India strengthened access to credit by amending the rules on priority of secured creditors outside reorganization proceedings and by adopting a new law on insolvency that provides a time limit and clear grounds for relief to the automatic stay for secured creditors during reorganization proceedings. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Protecting Minority Investors: India strengthened minority investor protections by increasing the remedies available in cases of prejudicial transactions between interested parties. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Paying Taxes: India made paying taxes easier by making payment of EPF mandatory electronically and introducing a set of administrative measures easing compliance with corporate income tax. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Trading across Borders: India reduced import border compliance time in Mumbai by improving infrastructure at the Nhava Sheva Port. Export and import border compliance cost were also reduced in both Delhi and Mumbai by eliminating merchant overtime fees and through the increased use of electronic and mobile platforms.

Enforcing Contracts: India made enforcing contracts easier by introducing the National Judicial Data Grid, which makes it possible to generate case measurement reports on local courts. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai. Resolving Insolvency: India made resolving insolvency easier by adopting a new insolvency and bankruptcy code that introduced a reorganization procedure for corporate debtors and facilitated continuation of the debtor’s business during insolvency proceedings. This reform applies to both Delhi and Mumbai.

Labor Market Regulation: India increased the mandatory length of paid maternity. This reform applies to both New Delhi and Mumbai.

The ease of doing business score captures the gap of each economy from the best regulatory performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies in the Doing Business sample since 2005.

An economy’s ease of doing business score is reflected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest and 100 represents the best performance. The ease of doing business ranking ranges from 1 to 190.

The full report can be viewed at: http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/data/exploreeconomies/india#