Ease of Doing Business in India and South Asia : Unlocking Business Opportunities Through Economic Reforms

The last four years have seen India make tremendous strides on the ease of doing business. India has climbed to a global rank of 77, out of 190, in the latest report and was also recognised as a top improver for a second consecutive year, a distinction achieved by only nine other countries in the past eight or so years. Since 2014, when India initiated its business reform programme and was ranked 5th amongst its South Asian neighbours and last among the BRICS, India is now in 1st place in South Asia and 3rd among the BRICS.Economies in South Asia region made further gains to improve the ease of doing business for domestic small and medium enterprises. These results from the Doing Business 2019 report are great news for South Asia and underscore the need to persist with challenging reforms that can provide more opportunities for people to lift themselves out of poverty and spread prosperity more widely In a first for South Asia, two of the region's economies have earned coveted spots in this year's global top improvers, India and Afghanistan. India, which is a top improver for a second consecutive year, implemented six reforms in the past year. India is now the region's topranked economy. Afghanistan, a top improver for the first time, carried out a record five reforms, moving up to 167th rank.The present paper highlights the India's performance in ease of doing business index. It also makes a comparison of India with South Asian countries in ease of doing business standings. The study exhibits the Indicator wise highlights of India's performance. The paper, in the end also studies the probable outcomes of India's rise in EODB ranking