Nirmala Sitharaman said the ministries will work with renewed focus to improve India's ranking. (File)
The government has said it is disappointed that its reforms have not been adequately captured by the World Bank in its latest ranking of countries for ease of doing business, a key indicator identified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he has pitched the India story to global investors.
India is ranked 130 out of 190 countries this year, unchanged from last year's original ranking and just one spot up from a revised rank of 131. It is still far away from PM Modi's goal of a place in the top 50.
That target remains, asserted union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, but said, "I am a bit disappointed. Not only the government of India, but every state is so actively engaged and wants to ease the situation... But for whatever reason, it has not been adequately captured in the ranking."
"Collectively, Team India has been doing quite a lot of work," the minister said, also adding, that the ranking "gives me the message that we have to be even more focused now and even speedier in going ahead with what we are doing."
Ms Sitharaman said her commerce ministry will engage more with states and businesses in communicating reform measures. She said certain reforms like setting up of commercial courts may not have gone into the systems of the World Bank as it had happened on different dates in states.
"Some of the steps do take time... so the trickle-down effect of certain reforms have taken their due time because India is a large country," she said.
India at 130, is placed between Cabo Verde (129) and Cambodia (130). New Zealand is number 1, Singapore 2 and Denmark 3. The USA is at number 8, China at 78.
In its South Asia list, the World Bank has ranked Bhutan (73), Nepal (107) and Sri Lanka (110) ahead of India. Pakistan is at 144.