“The Doing Business Report* was the flagship publication of the World Bank Group that benchmarked business regulations in 191 economies on 10 areas of business regulation such as: Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Registering Property, Getting Credit, Protecting Minority Investors, Paying Taxes,Trading across Borders, Enforcing Contracts, and Resolving Insolvency.
The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index was a ranking system established bythe World Bank Group wherein the ‘higher rankings’ (a lower numerical value)indicated better and usually simpler regulations for businesses and strongerprotections of property rights.The Ease Of Doing Business Score showed an economy’s absolute positionrelative to the best regulatory performance, whereas the ease of doing businessranking was an indication of an economy’s position relative to that of othereconomies.
The Enforcing Contracts indicator measured the time and cost for the resolution of a standardized commercial dispute as well as a series of good practices in the judiciary. Therefore, Time, Cost and Quality of Judicial Process were the three variables which the World Bank had taken into account for ranking the countries on the Enforcing Contracts parameter of the Ease of Doing Business Ranking. Only Delhi and Mumbai were under the purview of the Ease of Doing Business survey by World Bank.
The Department of Justice is the nodal department for the Enforcing Contracts Indicator. The Government of India has been aggressively pursuing various reform measures to create an effective, efficient, transparent and robust ‘Contract Enforcement Regime’. Several rounds of meetings have been held with the judicial and legal fraternity, educational institutions, leading law firms, corporate bodies, etc. to work in an integrated manner to improve the quality and efficiency of commercial courts.
The ‘Doing Business Report’ by World Bank Group has been discontinued. The World Bank is working on a new and more comprehensive framework called Business-Ready for assessing the business and investment climate in economies worldwide.