Arun Jaitley banks on India’s ranking in competitive economies list, hopes to improve in goods market 

 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is banking on the , which ranked India on the 39th spot. Jaitley said India will emerge as a big player in future as the country jumped 16 places to emerge as one of the competitive economies, especially in the BRICS nations.

In the BRICS set-up, India is the second most competitive economy, just behind China.

"India's rank has steadily improved from 71 in 2014-15 to 55 in 2015-16 and to 39 in the latest report. With this improvement...India has covered a long distance and is well on its way to emerge as a major player in the global economy,” said Jaitley.

He also said the government will continue its work in the areas that needs improvements.

"India's competitiveness has improved across the board, in particular in goods market efficiency, business sophistication, and innovation. "Recent reform efforts have concentrated on improving public institutions (up 16), opening the economy to foreign investors and global trade (up 4), and increasing transparency in the financial system (up 15),” the report said.

The report covers both business and social indicators which impact the competitiveness of the country in the global arena.

However, Jaitley said the report marked India negatively on efficiency in goods market largely due to varying taxes but this was going to change with introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST). India is ranked 60 on this list.

"In the coming months and years, significant improvement in goods market efficiency may be expected from GST rollout which will reduce fragmentation of the domestic market,” he said.

The government now expects reforms to show up in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business in coming years. India is at 130th rank among the 180 countries.
(image:indiatimes)