India Moves Up In World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index 2016 [Infographic]

India's rank in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index has been low for several years now. In World Bank's 2015 ranking, India's rank was 142 among 189 countries, but with the latest release, the country now stands at 130, 12 positions up from last year's ranking.

Improving rank in the Index has been one of the primary goals of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The government had earlier urged Indian states to compete with each other in improving its performance in being business-friendly and even follow each other's best policies. Economist Bibek Debroy observes that competition has raised business friendliness of Indian states.

Though the overall ranking has improved drastically, in dealing with construction permits, India's rank is 183, just a position up from 184 in the previous year. In enforcing contracts, India's rank is now 178, up from 186 in the previous year's list. 

However, Harvard Economist Lant Pritchett recently pointed out that World Bank ranks countries according to written laws and regulations, and not according to how such rules are implemented.