In support of the World Bank’s flagship ‘Business Ready’ (B-READY) project, which will replace the group’s Doing Business survey that ran into trouble after data irregularity reports in 2020, India has started evaluating the indicators and questions related to the new framework, including those on international trade, and has sought inputs from the industry for the same, sources said.

The B-READY project, which will benchmark the business environment and investment climate across various economies and is projected as a more balanced and transparent approach than previous ones, is being evaluated by the Indian government and industry for formulation of suitable responses to the questionnaires.

“The Department of Commerce is at present evaluating the indicators and questions on international trade within the B-READY framework and has asked various industry sectors to give their inputs on the matter by the month-end. Similarly, the evaluation of other aspects is being done by other concerned Ministries and Departments,” an industry source tracking the matter told businessline.

Three B-READY pilot reports are scheduled for release from 2024 to 2026. The first pilot will cover 54 economies, which will gradually add up to 185 economies. 

The World Bank decided to discontinue publishing its high-profile ‘Doing Business’ survey that ranked countries based on their business climates after data irregularities in its surveys of 2018 and 2020 were reported internally in June 2020.

The B-READY survey, set to replace the ‘Doing Business’ survey, has 10 different indicators/topics on which countries will be rated by experts and company surveys. The topics are business entry, business location, utility services, labour, financial services, international trade, taxation, dispute resolution, market competition, and business insolvency.

“In an improvement to Doing Business, it will compare what laws say on paper to the reality on the ground, examine the quality of regulations, improve the representation of data, steer away from economy-wide ratings, and assess the environment for the private sector as a whole,” per a description shared at the World Investment Forum in October last year.

A big change to the scoring will be the use of digital government services (single windows and information portals). For each economy/country, B-READY will have numeric scoring for each of the 10 indicators/topics. There are a total of three pillars: regulatory framework, public services, and efficiency, and all topics would be assessed against these.

For each pillar, the scores are built from points awarded at the indicator level, considering the perspectives of entrepreneurs (firm flexibility) and broader public interests (social benefits).

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