Explanation:

 India jumped up 30 notches into the top 100 rankings on the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ index, thanks to major improvements in indicators such as resolving insolvency, paying taxes, protecting minority investors and getting credit.

In the category of starting a business, though, the need for local entrepreneurs to go through 12 procedures to start a business, as opposed to five in high-income countries, worsened India’s ranking in the category to 156 from 155 last year.

There was also a major slip in ranking in the category of registering property — from 138 last year to 154 this year — due to increase in time taken, cost and number of procedures for registration.

Bhutan, in 75th place, is South Asia’s highest-ranked economy, followed by India (at 100) and Nepal (at 105).

This year, the report recognised eight areas in which reforms were implemented in Delhi and Mumbai, as opposed to just four last year.

India’s corporate law and securities regulations were recognised as highly advanced, placing it in fourth place in the global ranking on protecting minority investors. The time taken to obtain an electricity connection in Delhi reduced from 138 days four years back to 45 days now, against a 78-day average in OECD high-income economies, the report observed. This put India in 29th place in the category.

India still lags in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits. It takes longer to enforce a contract today, at 1,445 days, than 15 years ago (1,420 days).