NEW DELHI: The world Bank it has said it is pausing the publication of the Doing Business report, which ranks countries based on their business competitiveness, pending investigation of a “series of irregularities” in its 2018 and 2020 surveys.
Stating that the integrity and fairness of its data and analysis is paramount, the World Bank announced a series of measures and a review of its processes. He also promised to act on the research finding and retrospectively correct data for the countries that were most affected by irregularities.
According to the World Bank, the most affected countries appear to be Azerbaijan, China, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. India is not on the list of countries affected by the data irregularities.
In India, government officials said, the move will have no impact, as reforms were being carried out autonomously, either by providing power connections quickly, pushing through district-level reforms or establishing commercial courts.
India has made remarkable progress in ranking Doing Business since the Narendra Modi government came to power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made it clear that he wants the country to be in the top 50. From 142nd out of 190 countries, India now ranks 63rd on the Ease of Doing Business list, having undertaken a series of reform measures. The government has launched a series of indices and sparked a competition among states to improve business processes and approvals to improve rankings.
For more than 17 years of existence, the Doing Business report has been a valuable tool for countries seeking to measure the costs of doing business. The Doing Business indicators and methodology are designed without a single country in mind, but to help improve the overall business climate, the bank said.
“Several irregularities regarding data changes have been reported in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports, published in October 2017 and 2019. The data changes were inconsistent with the Doing Business methodology,” said the World Bank it’s a statement.
He said that the World Bank’s board of executive directors has been informed about the situation, as well as the authorities of the countries most affected by the irregularities in the data.
According to the Doing Business 2020 report, China joined the world’s ten most improved economies in terms of ‘Ease of doing business’ for the second year in a row, thanks to what the World Bank had then called a “strong reform agenda. ”
“China carried out a record eight trade reforms over the 12 months to May 1 and ranks 31st globally in the ranking of ‘Ease of doing business’ with a score of 77.9 out of 100,” he told the post the World Bank GroupDoing Business 2020 study.
This is not the first time that doubts have arisen about the data and the rankings methodology. Some former World Bank officials, including one of its former chief economists, have said the Bank could do a better job of explaining what the numbers mean.
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