India has grown more business-friendly: report

The regulatory environment in India has become more investor-friendly and the country has been leading South Asia in providing a better environment for local entrepreneurs, a new report by IFC and World Bank said.

India has implemented a total of 17 institutional or regulatory reforms over the past eight years, making it easier for entrepreneurs to do business, the `Doing Business 2013' report said.

Globally, Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business for the seventh consecutive year, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, Georgia and Australia.

Singapore continues to provide the world's most business-friendly regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs. The Republic of Korea is among the top 20 in the global ranking on the ease of doing business and Mongolia is the Asian region's top improver for the year in this year's `Doing Business' report.

The report 'Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises', released today, finds that 23 economies in East Asia and the Pacific have made their regulatory environment more business-friendly. China made the greatest progress in improving business regulations for local entrepreneurs, according to the report.

The report finds that 11 out of 24 economies in East Asia and the Pacific improved business regulations between from June 2011 and June 2012. During the period, India established strict time limits for pre-construction approvals, reducing the time needed to process permit applications, it noted.