Doing Business in India is even tougher than in Pakistan, SriLanka or Nepal

by Sriram Vadlamani

Now that does not sound very positive, is it?

India touted as the next world super power is

unfriendly to entrepreneurs who want to setup

shop in India, so much so that war ravaged,

terrorism prone, unsettled political economy

like Pakistan ranks much above India.


Doing business in India is tough…really tough !

World Bank has released the latest rankings

for 2009 for doing business in several countries

. India not surprisingly is languishing at a

ranking of 122. This is a slip of 2 ranks from 2007.

That should not come as a surprise because it has

been a while since India has gone through any major

reforms. Other intriguing facts are all our neighbors

(including Pakistan) of the sub-continent have done

remarkably well. Sri Lanka has led the way in the

sub-continent with some major reforms.

This report is extremely important because

, FDI’s and private equity groups follow it carefully

to park their investments.


The main reason for India slipping is because

most of the African nations have gone through

major reforms and thus broke through the rankings.

India did not focus on any reforms since the repor

t was published in 2008. Other factors for India’s

downslide are the number of tax payments required

by the companies and the inefficiency of court system

to resolve any legal matters.