India becomes significantly more attractive as a business location
6. May 2020The Indian Finance Minister Sitharaman informed Parliament at the end of January of the results of an analysis of the domestic economy last year. The country climbed 79 places in a list drawn up by the World Bank regarding trade and business relations. India has thus risen from 142nd place in 2014 to 63rd place in 2019. Countries neighbouring in the ranking include Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. India has improved on 7 out of 10 parameters, with reforms in VAT and insolvency law making a major contribution to India’s rise in the rankings. India has significantly improved the foundations for companies with an improved tariff structure and a more friendly legal situation. Nevertheless, there is still some catching up to do in the areas of business start-ups, registration of properties, tax payments and contract compliance.
Although the number of steps required to set up a business in India has been reduced from 13 to 10 and the duration has been shortened from 30 to 18 days, the government would like to optimise these figures further. For example, the time taken to obtain a building permit has been almost halved from 186 days to 98 days in just five years. For foreign trade, the government wants to improve the standardization of forms and processes as well as the cooperation between different authorities. The creation of a single digital platform is one of the most important goals in the coming years.
Maritime trade has also shown improvements. The time needed for goods handling has been reduced from an average of 4.67 to 2.48 days in the period from 2010 to 2019. A case study for the export and import of electronic goods at Bengaluru airport confirmed that the logistics process there is world-class. Another study found that, surprisingly, importing goods is easier than exporting. This applied to both air freight and container shipping. Importing goods to India often requires specific certification such as AIS (ARAI), BIS, WPC, TEC and PESO. We offer certification services for all product areas and support you with India certification. Our experienced team will be happy to advise you on the appropriate certifications for your products.
