We often hear people saying to innovate and start their own venture. But have you ever stopped and pondered over the difficulties of doing business in India? 

Our own Government recognises around 6000 obstacles to doing business in India. Around 1500-2000 such compliances are at the Central Level and the rest are at the State level. Apart from existing challenges, a budding entrepreneur would need 8 registrations and 4 licences, 8 labour returns and more to start a business under the existing laws. To put it in perspective, one would need 36 licences to open a restaurant in Bangalore but could get a gun with only 19 documents!  

Such conditions have forced India at the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. But things are changing and for good. India has gained speed up the list going from 142nd position to 63rd within 6 years. This was made possible by the government by solving problems by having third party assessments, upgrading their technology and having less human intervention. 

Significant strides are made by India in arenas of getting ‘construction permits’ and ‘electricity,’ standing at rank 27 and 22 in 2019. These two factors are the key reason behind Hong Kong ranking 3rd on the World Bank Index. Another reason is the new law that makes trading across Indian borders less costlier, speedy and with less documentation. 

But challenges in other arenas plague India’s business environment. Yet there’s a lot India can learn from countries like New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong, the top three countries on the World Bank’s list. New Zealand ranks 1st in the Corruption Perception List and 3rd on the Index of Economic Freedom. For instance, construction permits in India take up 34 procedures and 196 days whereas it takes just 8 procedures and 69 days in Hong Kong.

 Countries that have the best trading environment often share similar elements between them. For instance, they use such an assessment that samples only a small random amount of shipment instead of the lot, to save time on customs clearance. Export Border requirements take up 52.1 hours in India, whereas it takes a mere 10 hours in Singapore.

Unless such instances are not improved we would not be able to give a conducive business environment for new entrepreneurs and their ventures. Such challenges need to be tackled otherwise innovations would become exceedingly rare. Having less innovation and startups would also hamper India's economy. Do let us know what other factors hamper India’s ease of doing business?