India ranked 142 among the 189 countries surveyed for the latest World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report released on Wednesday, a drop by two places from the last year’s ranking, as Singapore topped the list.
The fall in ranking from last year’s 140 is mainly because other nations performed much better, Bank officials said. India’s ranking originally stood at 134 last year, but was adjusted to 140 to account for fresh data.
In the 2014 report, India had 52.78 points and this year it scored 53.97 points.
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The latest ranking, however, does not take into account a slew of measures taken by the Modi government to make India a business friendly destination.
“We do not want to send the impression that the drop in ranking is connected in any way with the current political situation [government],” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators Group, Development Economics of the World Bank Group.
“It is absolutely true that the new government of Mr. Modi has made it very clear that they see the creation of a better investment climate and a more business friendly environment in India a top priority. However, it is important to remember that the new government did not come into office until the second half of May,” he said.
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Appreciative of the steps taken by the new government, World Bank officials said that there was a very high likelihood of India significantly jumping up the ladder in the next report.