After the recent World Bank Report on ‘‘Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles To Growth,’’ which gave India among the lowest ratings on its investment climate, the government has decided to pull up its socks and work on its image at a time when it is trying to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in various sectors.The government has directed states to streamline all the seven indices mentioned in the World Bank report which include time, cost and number of procedures involved in: starting a business in India, labour market rigidity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors and closing a business.Not content to leave the job to politicians or political parties in various states, the government has decided to directly get the bureaucracy at the Centre and in the states to work on these performance indicators. Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi, in a letter to all state and Union Territory Chief Secretaries, has stated that there was scope to learn from the best practices globally but also within India.The letter admits: ‘‘It has been reported that registering property in India involves six procedures, 67 days and 13.9 per cent of property value as cost compared to an average of 5 procedures, 55 days and 6 per cent of property value as cost for South Asia. What is more, there is a large variation within India, in that, while it may take only 37 days to complete the registration process in Hyderabad, it could take upto 133 days in Bhubaneshwar or Chandigarh.’’The World Bank Report had said that compared to most other countries, including those in South Asia, the time for entry, exit and for contract enforcement is much higher in India. After scanning laws around setting up businesses, employment, property transfers, court efficiency, and business licensing in 145 countries, the report revealed that it takes 79 weeks to sack an employee in India, while the global best is New Zealand at zero, and our neighbour Bangladesh is at 47.Registering property in India takes 67 days while the global best is Norway at 1 day. You have to spend 14 per cent of the value of the property in the registration process in India, while in Pakistan it would be only 3 per cent. In India, it takes 10 years to close down a business while the global best is Ireland, where it takes less than 6 months.Our neighbours are again much better than us on this index with Sri Lanka at 2 years, Pakistan at 3, Bangladesh at 4 and Nepal at 5 years.
