World Bank’s Business Ready report: India aims higher global ranking

New Delhi: With the World Bank (WB) planning to come out with its first Business Ready report in September this year, the Union Commerce Ministry has started working on the international trade topic in detail to further push India’s ranking, an official said. Business Ready (B-READY) is the World Bank’s new flagship report benchmarking the business environment and investment climate in most economies worldwide. The report assesses the regulatory framework and public services directed at firms, and the efficiency with which regulatory framework and public services are combined in practice.

The first B-READY report will be launched on September 25, 2024. The Business Ready report is replacing the World Bank Group’s earlier Doing Business index. In 2020, the World Bank decided to pause the publication of its Doing Business report following a number of irregularities regarding changes to data in previous reports.

The new focuses on 10 topics covering the lifecycle of a firm in the course of starting, operating, or closing or reorganizing its activities. The topics are Business Entry, Business Location, Utility Services, Labor, Financial Services, International Trade, Taxation, Dispute Resolution, Market Competition, and Business Insolvency.

Over the next three years, the project will grow to cover about 180 economies worldwide annually, starting with 54 economies in 2023-24, 120 economies in 2024-25, and reaching 180 economies in 2025-26.