The World Bank on Saturday advised India to focus on land digitalisation and mechanism for enforcing contract.

It said that improvement in these areas will help India to move further up in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) ranking. Meanwhile, the multilateral agency has said that there will be annual commitment of $ 5-6 billion for various projects.

World Bank Group President David Malpass complimented India for improving its rank in EoDB to 63 from 142 five years ago. 

When asked about the two specific areas, where India can do a lot, he said, “One area that could be improved, ensuring the commercial courts are adequately resource that the district level so they can deliver judgments faster.” This is an ability to enforce contracts in a practical way.

He also advised setting up a fast-track commercial dispute resolution mechanism. "Some countries have small claims courts. This helps people enter into contracts if they know that the contract can be enforced,” he said.

With regards to land management and reforms, he said that digitalisation of the land data and making the data readily available throughout India which would facilitate the buying and selling of land.

Though India has done improved the business environment to a large extent, other Asian countries especially South East Asian ones have also done very well. This has added to their competitiveness. There is a belief that countries such as Vietnam and The Philippines have managed to attract more companies, planning to move from China, than India.

Factors that determine a country's competitiveness

Malpass said that a country's competitiveness is a combination of factors.

“It's partly the ease of doing business but as I note in the forward, that there are many other factors as investors choose where to  invest in countries. That includes macro-economic stability. It includes the skills of the workforce, and all these all of these other areas that India is in global market for,” he said while complimented India on the progress that it has made in doing business.

“I think there's even more that can be done in the future. And that will all factor into making India even more competitive in a global marketplace,” the World Bank Chief said who took charge in April this year. This is his first trip to India after assuming the leadership.

The agency earlier praised the Modi administration's effort in demonetisation, which took place in 2016. In fact, this April, it had projected India’s growth to be as high as 7.5 per cent, but earlier this month, it slashed forecast to 6 per cent citing a broad-based and severe cyclical slowdown. Malpass ducked the question on the impact of demonetisation or GST on economic growth rate but said that India is being affected by global environment and has slowed somewhat from the higher growth rate from the fast growth rate in earlier years.

Now, what can be done to be back on high growth path, he said, “What my prescription or the suggestion is that there be an openness to reforms and innovation into improvements in the government structures that allow for faster growth. And I think India has a very good platform for doing that. Because of the experience India has with technology with knowledge as a broad concept within the society that can help it move forward. And it's made several important reforms in the last few years that can still pay off.”

The World Bank Chief is in India for a four-day visit that started on Friday. On Saturday, he also addressed the government’s think tank, NITI Aayog, in a lecture series on the role of the financial sector in India’s development. Now, he will travel to Gujarat to deliver the inaugural address at a three-day event on strengthening the capacity of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). He will interact with the new cohort of civil servants to discuss ideas on strengthening public administration in India.

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