B-READY Assessment

B-READY Assessment

Context

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) announced that India is scheduled for the World Bank’s Business Ready (B-READY) 2026 assessment. This marks a significant shift in how India’s investment climate will be evaluated globally, moving beyond the discontinued "Ease of Doing Business" rankings to a more transparent and holistic framework.

About the B-READY Assessment

What is B-READY? The Business Ready (B-READY) is the World Bank Group's new corporate flagship report that assesses the business and investment climate worldwide. Launched in 2024, it replaces the earlier Doing Business Report (DBR), which was discontinued in 2020 due to data integrity concerns.

Key Structural Pillars: The assessment is built on three distinct pillars that evaluate the balance between business flexibility and social benefits:

• Pillar I – Regulatory Framework: Measures the quality and clarity of statutory laws (de jure) governing a business.
• Pillar II – Public Services: Evaluates the quality of institutions and infrastructure (e.g., digital portals, utility reliability) provided by the government.
• Pillar III – Operational Efficiency: Measures the real-world experience (de facto) of businesses in complying with rules and using services.
   

Key Features and Methodology

• Lifecycle Approach: Evaluates 10 core topics spanning a firm’s lifecycle:
  1. Business Entry
  2. Business Location
  3. Utility Services
  4. Labor
  5. Financial Services
  6. International Trade
  7. Taxation
  8. Dispute Resolution
  9. Market Competition
  10. Business Insolvency
• Cross-Cutting Themes: Unlike its predecessor, B-READY integrates Digital Adoption, Environmental Sustainability, and Gender Inclusion across all 10 topics.
• Dual Data Collection: Combines Expert Consultations (for legal frameworks) with nationwide Firm-level Surveys (via the World Bank Enterprise Surveys) to capture ground-level reality.

India’s Strategy for B-READY 2026

India has launched a series of "pro-business" reforms to secure a strong position in the 2026 assessment:

• Regulatory Compliance Burden (RCB): Over 47,000 compliances have been reduced over the last five years, including the simplification of 16,109 items and the decriminalization of 4,623 provisions.
• Jan Vishwas Bill 2025: A massive legislative effort to decriminalize minor technical and procedural defaults across 355 provisions to foster "ease of living" and "ease of business."
• National Single Window System (NSWS): A digital "one-stop shop" integrating 32 Central Ministries and 33 States/UTs, offering access to over 3,300 approvals.
• Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP): The seventh edition (2024–25) is currently in progress, focusing on streamlining building permissions and enhancing inspection procedures across states.

Challenges in Assessment

• The "Public Services Gap": Early B-READY pilot reports show that most economies score higher on Regulations (Pillar I) than on the Public Services (Pillar II) needed to implement them.
• De Jure vs. De Facto: While India has strong laws on paper, the B-READY survey-based methodology (Pillar III) may expose gaps in ground-level implementation and bureaucratic delays.
• Sustainability Standards: The inclusion of environmental and gender benchmarks requires Indian firms to adopt greener practices and more inclusive labor policies than previously measured.

Conclusion

The inclusion of India in the B-READY 2026 assessment serves as a litmus test for the "Viksit Bharat" vision. By shifting the focus from mere "ease" to "readiness," the World Bank is pushing India to not only simplify its laws but also to upgrade its public infrastructure and ensure that reforms reach the smallest enterprises.