Twenty-three passports belonging to Indian Sikhs have gone missing from the Pakistan High Commission which has raised security concerns, as reported by Times of India.
The Sikh pilgrims whose passports have gone missing were planning a visit to the gurudwaras in Pakistan including the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. An FIR has been registered in the case. After the matter was brought to the notice of External Affairs Ministry, the Ministry revoked all the missing passports and has taken up the issue with the Pakistan High Commission. Pakistan has denied the allegations on its Officials regarding the loss of the passports.
“This is a serious issue and we have taken all necessary action to prevent any misuse of these passports”, told an official source. It is reported that a Delhi based agent had collected all the missing passports. He informed the authorities that he had submitted all the documents to the Pakistan High Commission but when he went to the High Commission to collect the passports, the Pakistani officials denied having the passports.
Earlier last month, Pakistan had issued visas to about 3800 Indian Sikh pilgrims on occasion of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev. The 23 people who had lost passports were also scheduled to travel with that group.
The Indian government had sought 24/7 access to Kartarpur Sahib for an unrestricted number of pilgrims keeping in mind the sentiments of Sikh pilgrims.
Did a whole lot of people actually believe the allegations of corruption against Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal? I am talking about real people, not members of the ecosystem who depend on spreading on those allegations for a living.
Probably not.
But the fact remains that if BJP had got just 0.5% more votes, it would have won both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
We don’t know if 0.5% of votes were swung by the manufactured controversy over the Rafale deal. However, the recent Assembly Elections have established that a big lie, even if believed by a small number of people, can do massive damage.
First, they attacked his mother and they attacked his father. They made fun of his humble origins as a tea seller. Recently, when Senior Congress Leader C P Joshi attacked Modi for being born into an OBC caste, he was merely the latest in a long line of Congress leaders from Ghulam Nabi Azad to Priyanka Gandhi to Mani Shankar Aiyar who had made remarks that could easily be seen as insulting references to his caste. C P Joshi was just being more explicit.
To keep up appearances, Rahul Gandhi suggested that C P Joshi might want to appeal to his own conscience and regret his words. As far as I know, he didn’t.
Why did they so instinctively attack Modi’s parents, his family background and his caste? Because this is what comes naturally to them. They have built their lives around the privilege they obtained at birth. Or by becoming sycophants of those who had such privilege. This is what they understand best.
The other thing they understand is India’s endemic corruption, the result of a system that their party nurtured for decades. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi presented the report card of four decades of Congress rule by saying that only 15 paise of every rupee spent by the government ever reaches the masses. The rest is grabbed by the “system”.
So when they realized that Modi’s Teflon coated honesty is the obstacle for them, they set out to remake Modi’s image in their own. They didn’t have to prove themselves innocent, they just had to prove that Modi is just another politician like them.
In this project, all they needed to do was create doubt. Evidence didn’t matter so much.
Why?
Because of the very same system that they built. The system that was engineered to take 85 paise out of every rupee spent by the government. We Indians are just so used to it. We have grown up hearing the constant refrain that “politicians are corrupt”. So it doesn’t take more than a few allegations to sow in our minds the seed of doubt.
Even now, after the Supreme Court has demolished all allegations against the Rafale Deal, they are reasonably confident. Some journalists yesterday, anguished by the verdict, hastened to point out that Rafale is a perception game. In other words, they are counting on sixty years of Congress scams to convince people that there must be a scam in the Rafale Deal because there always is.
After all, who has ever heard of a defence deal in India without a scam attached? Try googling Nehru and jeep scam. All the way to the AgustaWestland helicopter scam.
Remember that they don’t have to prove they are better than Modi. They are trying to prove that Modi is just like them.
Some spoke of “people’s court”. Again, they were confident in their ability to spread fake news. And that there would be someone to bankroll it.
Remember that Modi’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has helped in the recovery of Rs 3 lakh crore of bad loans in 2 years. That is a *lot* of money. And those who got big loans in the golden days of the naamdars couldn’t possibly be happy about this.
Now, who would go around knocking on people’s doors, trying to frame the chowkidar in false cases so that he gets fired from his job? What could their motivation be? Something to think about…
Mumbai Police have been very active on social media in their awareness campaigns and often ensure prompt action through speedy response. They have also caught celebrities breaking traffic rules several times and initiated action.
Yesterday, a video of Actor Dulquer Salman shot by Sonam Kapoor went viral in the social media. A social media user had called the attention of Mumbai Police by sharing that video. In the video, Salman was seen fidgeting with his mobile phone while sitting on the driver seat in a moving car and Sonam Kapoor, who appeared to be shooting the video, was heard saying ‘weirdo’ to Salman.
Mumbai Police attempted to call out the apparent act of traffic rules violation. They shared the video tagging Sonam Kapoor and stating that it was indeed a ‘weirdo’ act to do while driving.
We agree with you @sonamakapoor ! Quite a ‘weirdo’ to try such stunts while driving and putting the lives of fellow drivers at risk too! We don’t quite approve of these even in ‘reel’ life. #NotDonepic.twitter.com/WWoDz16hKj
Sonam Kapoor promptly reacted to the tweet, stating that the vehicle in the video was rigged to a truck and was not being ‘driven’. She also took a sly dig at Mumbai Police stating she appreciates the concern shown and she hopes and knows they show the same interest in ‘regular folk’ too, referring to common citizens.
Via Twitter
The fact that the vehicle was rigged and was not being driven was also shared by Dulquer Salman. Salman also snapped at Mumbai Police for not checking facts before tweeting and shared another video that showed the vehicle being towed by a truck.
Would appreciate it if you had checked some facts before tweeting this. In fact @MumbaiPolice helped us with permissions and traffic management during the shoot and were present the whole time. In my next tweet attaching the video I was shooting. #notawierdohttps://t.co/WnKSnSDmjZ
While the Mumbai police responded to Salman that a user had brought the issue to their attention and they are duty bound to raise alarm in such situations, they also clarified to him that instead of attempting to chastise public servants for doing their job, a clarification with the video that showed the car being towed would have been much better.
Via Twitter
They also responded to Sonam Kapoor’s ‘regular folk’ sly in style. Exposing her underlying sense of entitlement in considering herself above the ‘regular folk’, they replied that for them no citizen in ‘regular’ and all Mumbaikars are equally ‘special’ to them.
For us, No Mumbaikar is ‘regular’ they are all ‘special’! And we are equally concerned about them all. Glad to know your safety wasn’t ‘rigged’. @sonamakapoorhttps://t.co/PyYbB23OZs
They also responded to Salman that they were only doing their job and they appreciate the fact that the actor was not breaking any rules.
Sonam Kapoor soon rectified her tone and responded to the police that she is glad and grateful for the concern and protection. She even tweeted later (apparently for her fans) that the Mumbai police were just doing their job and should not be ‘pulled up’ for it.
The Mumbai police Twitter handle is one of the most popular official handles of an on Twitter. On several occasions, they have held celebrities accountable for breaking traffic rules and taken action.
Following the #MeToo storm that took India by the storm few weeks back, singer Sona Mohapatra has asked Delhi Government to withdraw the invitation to singer Kailash Kher for a concert in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar. In a petition to Delhi Government, Mohapatra has narrated her experience with Kher and accused him of sexually harassing her.
She alleges that Kher made her feel uncomfortable and made unwanted sexual advances towards her during the course of their professional relationship. Mohapatra further says that she is not the only one to have come forward with allegations against Kher. She says that multiple women including minors have come forward with their #MeToo stories against Kher and organising this concert would add insult to injury.
She expressed shock at Kher being asked to headline a performance at the Delhi Government’s Mayur Utsav which is scheduled on 16th December, Sunday.
Other than Mohapatra, many others have also raised their concerns against Delhi Government lending its name for a concert by someone who has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment.
How proudly you lend your govt’s name to a show featuring a molestor.
Kailash Kher has multiple allegations of misconduct and harassment against him and you’ve got him performing even after govt employees protested this. pic.twitter.com/WqHyoduE1G
However, there has been no communication from Delhi Government’s side yet.
Recently, many women and men had come out in the open to talk about their sexual harassment stories, many of which included big names in the media and film fraternity. As the #MeToo movement gained momentum in India starting with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing Nana Patekar of harassing her, incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct started coming out in the open, with allegations being levelled against many personalities in the media and entertainment industry, including Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, and Rajat Kapoor.
Union minister M J Akbar, comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod were all accused of sexual misconduct. Notable filmmakers like Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan and Journalists like Vinod Dua and Sidharth Bhatia of The Wire, Prashant Jha of the Hindustan Times have been accused. Filmmaker Sajid Khan was recently suspended from Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association over sexual harassment charges.
After a Supreme Court Bench comprising of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S K Kaul and Justice K M Joseph sought a response from the Centre on a plea alleging medical negligence by the US based firm Johnson and Johnson (J&J), the Centre submitted before the Supreme Court that the UPA government allowed the import of the faulty hip implants in India even after the company withdrew its product from Australia, according to reports.
According to the response filed by the Centre, the UPA government allowed the import of the faulty hip implants of Johnson & Johnson in February 2010 which the company had withdrawn from Australia in December 2009 after complaints. The company had applied for license in India in January 2010 after it had already withdrawn the product from Australia in 2009, claimed the affidavit filed by Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO).
J&J had informed the CDSCO on September 23, 2009 that it has not received any complaints about the hip implant in the last three years. Thereafter on March 8, 2010, J&J in its safety notice to CDSCO informed about a higher rate of revision surgeries on patients who had received hip implant products of J&J. The company informed the CDSCO about the voluntary recall of the product from India on August 24, 2010.
The petition claimed that the lives of 14,525 patients in India were endangered due to “large scale and illegal implantation of faulty, deadly and poisonous DePuy ASR Hip Implants”.
A committee was set up in 2017 headed by Dr Arun Aggarwal to look into the aftermath of the matter which had found J&J guilty of medical negligence. “The firm has failed to provide medical management to all the patients. In addition, the firm has not paid compensation to any patient so far as per available records,” the committee’s report said. The report suggested a base compensation of Rs 20 lakh to each patient who received the faulty hip implant.
The Centre has refused to accept J&J’s stand of not providing reimbursement to the patients after August 24, 2017 and has asked the company to extend the reimbursements til 2025.
The Central Expert Committee headed by Dr R K Arya had created a formula for recalculation of compensation to patients who received the faulty hip implants and fixed an outer limit of 1.22 crore.
Despite losing a closely-fought battle with Congress in Madhya Pradesh, outgoing CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan will embark on an Abhar yatra to express gratitude to people of MP for giving him 15 years to serve them. The yatra will begin next week and will cover all the 52 districts of MP.
According to reports, Shivraj Singh will base his yatra on the fact that despite getting fewer seats than Congress, BJP got slightly more vote share in elections even though it was facing 15 years of anti-incumbency in the state. BJP managed to get 41.02% votes against Congress’ 40.89%, but former got only 109 seats against 104 of latter.
“We have 41.02% votes against Congress’s 40.89% though we fell short of the magic number. The party is thankful to voters and Shivraj Singh will take out ‘Aabhar Yatra’ in all 52 districts to express his feelings.” BJP state spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said. He also added that a detailed programme is yet to be discussed.
This yatra is also aimed at boosting the morale of workers and preparing them for 2019 general elections where BJP is targetting to retain its 26 Lok Sabha seats from MP. It will be only three months before the Election Commission implements the model code of conduct in the state.
On Thursday Kamal Nath was appointed as the face of CM of MP by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, following high tensions between Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath cadre. This was followed by Akali Dal leader and Delhi MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa accusing Congress President Rahul Gandhi of rubbing salt to the injuries of the Sikh community by appointing Kamal Nath as CM of MP.
On Wednesday, when asked whether Shivraj’s future plans to move to Delhi, Chouhan said “Meri aatma yahan basti hai (my soul belongs in Madhya Pradesh). I would live and die in Madhya Pradesh but won’t go anywhere.”
It is reported that Shivraj may soon be joining Union Cabinet and contest elections from Vidisha in 2019 general elections.
Shivraj Singh has a reputation for widely doing yatras on foot. He is also known as ”Panv-Panv wale bhaiya (one who always remains on foot)” amongst his followers.
On the other hand, after much speculation, Congress has also announced Ashok Gehlot as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Sachin Pilot as the Deputy Chief Minister.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a curative petition challenging the appointment of IPS officer Rakesh Asthana to the post of CBI special director. The apex court decision came while hearing the curative petition filed by Prashant Bhushan representing NGO Common Cause. Bhushan had filed the plea to reconsider the Supreme Court’s November judgment upholding the appointment of IPS officer to the CBI, and it was the third petition filed by him in the case.
The Supreme Court on January 23 had rejected a review petition filed by the NGO against the SC judgement upholding the appointment of Asthana to the post of CBI special director, saying there was no error on record to merit a review of the order. That review petition was filed by the NGO after SC had dismissed its original petition seeking cancellation of appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Special Direction or CBI in November last year, saying it cannot question a “unanimous” decision taken by the selection committee and the decision is not illegal.
After the rejection of both the original PIL and the review petition by the apex court, the NGO had again filed a curative petition on the same matter. Rejecting that petition, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “We have gone through the curative petition and connected papers. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court.”
It may be noted that while Prashant Bhushan and his NGO Common Cause is trying to remove Rakesh Asthana making allegations of corruptions against him, in London Vijay Mallya was using those allegations in the court hearing the Indian government’s plea to extradite Mallya to India. Mallya’s lawyers had argued that Asthana, who was leading the CBI’s case against Mallya, is corrupt and politically motivated. The UK court had rejected all these allegations and had ruled that there is no evidence on allegations made against Asthana.
The Supreme Court’s verdict is being seen as the second major setback for both the Congress party and Prashant Bhushan, as the Supreme Court had earlier rejected a plea to order a probe on the Rafale deal. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had used the ongoing CBI internal rift to score a political point and had accused the CBI special director Rakesh Asthana of “infiltrating” CBI. He had referred to Asthana as the blue-eyed boy of Prime Minister Modi.
The PM’s blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes. Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that’s at war with itself. https://t.co/Z8kx41kVxX
With Supreme Court deciding to reject the petition challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana, it has resulted in a huge embarrassment for the Rahul Gandhi. Earlier, the Congress party had suffered a huge blow after the Supreme Court did not entertain a petition seeking a court-monitored investigation into the Rafale deal. The Court said that it has not found any material to show that there has been any commercial favouritism and perception of individuals can’t be the basis for an inquiry in the sensitive issue of defence procurement.
Congress-supporting troll, true to his word, is back spreading fake news on his website. We had earlier reported how ViralinIndia.net, a fake news website with anti-Modi and pro-Islamist propaganda, was being run by a pro-Congress troll Abhishek Mishra. It was ‘temporarily’ shut down as the team was busy ‘covering the elections’. As the five-state assembly elections concluded last week, the website is back up and running spreading bizarre fake news and fake narrative.
On 6th December, the fake news website published an article claiming that a watch worth Rs. 15 lakh was stolen from Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ wedding reception in Delhi.
The article claiming Rs. 15 lakh watch stolen from Priyanka Chopra’s wedding reception.
The reception was attended by Prime Minister Modi, who has a habit of stealing from his childhood, claims the report.
The article claiming PM Modi is prime suspect of stealing a watch.
“In his childhood, Modi stole all jewellery from his mother’s cupboard and ran away. Modi’s father died out of this shock,” the report said.
At first, we thought perhaps this is a bad satire, and tried looking for tags or disclaimer that could show it is satire. We could not find any. Over and above the anti-Modi outlandish accusations made by this watch, we found out that the ‘luxury watch’ image the website has used is actually available for Rs. 399 on Amazon.
Rs. 15 lakh watch available for Rs. 399 on Amazon.
The claim about Prime Minister Narendra Modi having stolen some belongings from his home in his childhood is a fake news spread by pro-Congress ecosystem, and the same was repeated on this website.
We casually glanced through other articles on this fake news pro-Congress propaganda website. Another article claims that Prime Minister Modi while campaigning for Rajasthan elections in Sikar, ‘ran away’ when people started shouting ‘Chowkidar chor hai’. The article claims that Modi ‘escaped’ in a helicopter. To verify, we checked out the video of Modi’s rally in Sikar. In the hour-long video, we could not see Modi ‘fleeing’ the spot in a helicopter.
Before ‘temporarily’ shutting the website
Before the website resumed its operations on 3rd December, last article was published on 8th October. One such article claimed that the accusations against PM Modi have reached the Supreme Court and following the 10th October verdict, Modi may soon end up in jail. On 10th October, the Supreme Court refused to issue a notice in Rafale deal petition but asked the government to furnish the detail of the decision making process in a sealed cover, without technological parameters or suitability of the aircraft. Today, the Supreme Court dismissed all the petitions for investigation.
The fake news factory does not stop on this website alone. On a Facebook page named “I support Ravish Kumar” (NDTV India journalist), ‘ViralinIndia.net’ has shared a fake news that in today’s verdict, Supreme Court has rapped the Modi government and that the Opposition and people of India want to know what the details of the Rafale deal.
Another Facebook page created in support of Sonia Gandhi has shared another post with ‘viralinIndia.net’ logo, which claims that former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, on his successor Urjit Patel’s exit claimed that “Narendra Modi has ruined the country.”
Fake post on Raghuram Rajan
While Rajan did express concern about Patel’s exit from RBI, he never said that Modi has ruined India. There are dozens of such pages that share such fake news and quotes credited to ‘Viral In India’.
Social networking platforms have recently said they are trying to take concrete steps to curb spreading the fake news menace. These platforms are regularly used by fake news peddlers to amplify the fake news. Despite this, the website, as well as various Facebook pages run by Mishra and his team, continue spreading fake news.
It should be noted that Abhishek Mishra is based in Madhya Pradesh and now there is a Congress government in the state.
After the Supreme Court debunked all the allegations made by Rahul Gandhi about the Rafale deal, the Congress president addressed the media. And instead of tendering an apology for his lies as demanded by the government, he chose to brazenly stick to his lies.
He started the press conference by saying that the Rafale deal has been snatched from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and gave ₹30,000 to Anil Ambani’s Reliance. Rahul Gandhi repeated the lie that Narendra Modi stole ₹30,000 from people of India. Rahul Gandhi said that if an enquiry is conducted on the Rafale deal is done, only two persons will be found guilty, Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani.
Referring to the Supreme Court judgement on the petitions filed demanding a SIT enquiry into the Rafale deal, the Congress president alleged that the court misled people by saying CAG has gone into the prices of the Rafale aircraft, and the report of CAG has been presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the parliament. He claimed that no such enquiry has been done by CAG, and no report was submitted to PAC. He wondered if Modi had submitted the report to PAC in France, joking maybe there is a PAC in PMO that nobody is aware of, to a huge laughter from the reporters present at the press conference.
It can be noted that there is absolutely no basis in allegations of Rahul Gandhi. India is directly buying the 36 Rafale jets from Dassault, which will be manufactured in France. HAL does licensed production of aircrafts that are made in India under licence from aircraft manufacturers. As all the 36 planes will be made in France, HAL does not come into the picture. Reliance and Dassault have formed a joint venture, which get a fraction of offset business that Dassault is obliged to do as per India’s defence purchase policy. Dassault’s investment in the JV is mere ₹400 crore, not ₹30,000 crore as claimed by Rahul Gandhi. In the Rafale deal the offset obligation is 50%, means total offset business will be around ₹30,000 crore, but that business will be divided among more than a hundred companies, many of them public sector units, and DRDO will be largest receiver of offset business.
These points have been clarified by the government of India several times in the past. In today’s judgement, the Supreme Court also reiterated the same points. But showing a complete disrespect to the Supreme Court of India, Congress president Rahul Gandhi repeated the same lies that he is making for the last several months. Moreover, after he completed his speech, he walked away from the venue, refusing to take any questions from the reporters. While at the beginning he said that prime minister does not talk to media, at the end he himself refused to take questions after ending his monologue.
The government works as a monolith, and unfortunately, several times, the various cogs and process behind delivering a said output is unknown. With respect to India’s meteoric rise in the Ease of Doing Business rankings, much has been said and the negative perception has manifested itself from several quarters. A friend of mine too called and asserted, rather vehemently that the entire exercise was ‘fixed’.
I was never much of a reader but my fascination with Amar Chitra Katha made me a great story listener and a dramatic storyteller. Amar Chitra Katha simplified the most complex stories in history – Mahabharata and Ramayana and made it simple enough even for toddlers to understand. If Mahabharata and Ramayana can be simplified, shouldn’t complex Government DPRs and public policies are made easy enough for the public to understand?
Intelligence is not about wordplay, vocabulary or complex philosophies. Intelligence is about taking the most complex ideas and communicating it to the lowest possible denominator. Consultants make their millions like that. Centralized communication is always a challenge.
While several other schemes and achievements, the process of which needs to be explained, in this article, the attempt is to simplify Governments’ complex ideas as far as Ease of Doing Business is concerned.
About Ease of Doing Business
The Ease of Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations, important dimensions of the regulatory environment and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. It provides quantitative indicators on different parameters which define the ease of doing business in a country. It also measures features of labour market regulations. Although it does not present rankings on the labour market regulation indicators, it does present the data for these indicators.
Approach and Methodology
World Bank ranks various countries on Ease of Doing Business Parameters using two techniques:
Scoring based on 11 indicators
Perception Survey feedback received from the beneficiaries.
Ease of Doing Business captures several important dimensions of the regulatory environment affecting domestic firms. It provides quantitative indicators on regulation for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency highlighted in the table below. Ease of Doing Business also measures features of labour market regulation which are reported as a separate section and not included in the ranking.
Table of EODB indicators and what is measured
The next critical component is the perception survey wherein World Bank understands the actual implementation of reforms on the ground and its overall impact on the business regulatory environment of the country. The data is collected through several rounds of communication with expert respondents (both private sector practitioners and Government officials), through responses to questionnaires, conference calls, written correspondence and visits by the team. The entire process of feedback mechanism is reflected in the pictorial diagram below:
Process of feedback mechanism
The above diagram depicts the timeline of EODB report launch, beginning with Questionnaire development followed by Data Collection & Analysis and, Data verification, until the final step of publishing the report.
Ease of Doing Business: India’s Journey
In a major boost to the Government, India has jumped 23 spots in the new World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EODB) 2019 rankings to take up the 77th spot, with a score of 67.23. The report goes on to list India as one of the top 10 major reformers or ‘improvers’ among 190 countries, along with neighbours China. The top spots were occupied by New Zealand (86.59), Singapore (85.24), and Denmark (84.64).
The country’s performance in the last four years in terms of easing business regulations has been impressive: it managed to jump 65 spots during the period. Stakeholders, especially those from the muddled real estate sector, explained that it is now a lot easier to get construction and licensing permits, trading across borders and other Government approvals.
India, too, introduced many reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax to reduce the burden of cascading taxes, amendments to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for faster resolutions, easier licensing and trading norms.
These are some of the key reasons behind India’s jump from the 142nd spot in 2014 to 77 in the Ease of Doing Business 2019 rankings. While 2017’s 30-rank jump remains, the highest improvement recorded by India, this year’s jump has also been lauded by experts.
Citizens will be pleased to know that India is now among the top 8 South Asian countries in the list. India’s ranking improved based on the relaxation of norms in the construction sector, reduction of taxes, and relaxation in financial markets among other measures.
Ease of Doing Business: India Success Story
The diagram below depicts the timeline of India’s performance in EODB. Against initial target set of reaching top 50 in the World in EODB rankings, India jumped 30 ranks in 2017, followed by 23 ranks in 2018.
India’s success story
India’s performance in Ease of Doing Business Report
Diagram depicts India’s Year-On-Year ranking in EODB rankings.
As one can see, the diagram clearly indicates the plateau of ranking from 132 in 2011 under the Congress regime, to 130 in 2016 under the Modi government, followed by a sharp rise to 100th rank in 2017.
In 2018, India’s rank is 77th in the World.
Rise in EODB ranks since 2011
Highlights of Ease of Doing Business 2018
The EODB ranking has given India a considerable edge in 2018. India bagged several accolades like best performance since inception of doing business report, best improver in the world in terms of improvement in rank. India also became the only country in South Asia and BRICS to feature amongst most improved nations.
The following diagram highlights India’s key achievements in EODB rankings. Besides being the biggest improver and holding the record for highest jump in rank, India is the only country amongst South Asia and BRICS economies to feature in most improved nations.
Highlights of EODB
Highlights of Ease of Doing Business 2019
The following diagram of India’s performance in the last two years. India is now ranked 1st among South Asian countries, due to inching closer to international best practices on 8 indications.
Highlights of EODB
India’s performance over the last two years
India’s performance can be credited to positive changes in construction permits, trading across borders, paying taxes, resolving insolvency, enforcing contracts etc. There are several indicators in which India has improved remarkably well.
How India improved in some indicators
Major reforms recognized by World Bank
Under the Modi government, 20 reforms have occurred since 2014, 14 in the last two years and 6 in last year alone.
India’s reforms chart
Way Forward: India’s Quest to Come in Top 50
The Government now needs to keep the reform momentum going. In the area of taxation, indirect tax reform has to be taken to the next level by bringing in the excluded items, including petroleum products, in the GST ambit. On the direct tax side, a new Direct Taxes Code must ensure that the income tax burden on the companies comes down along with the simplification of the tax structure. We still have a huge scope for improvement in Contract enforcement and starting a new business arena – improvements in these will improve the ranking further.
The MSME industry needs more money to invest and easy credit availability. These also will play a critical role in improving the country’s rankings in ease of doing business. The move to take these ranking to State level and extending this to District level is a great initiative.
The Government is working with the World Bank to recognise over 200 reforms that will help propel India into the top-50 bracket in ease of doing business, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
