It makes an assessment of 50 economies (excluding India) and aims to cover 180 economies by 2026. It is a successor to Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings of WB. EoDB (flagship report of WB) ranked countries based on ease of opening and operating a company.
It was discontinued in 2021 owing to ethical irregularities.
About Business- Ready Index
- The B-READY index is a successor to the Ease of Doing Business rankings, which were discontinued in 2021 due to irregularities.
- It is a ground-breaking initiative that aims to focus on quantitatively assessing the business environment across world economies.
- It envisages taking into consideration more diverse factors while arriving at the rating.
- Global financial institutions and multi-national companies will use the B-Ready framework as a benchmark to understand the regulatory and policy environment of a country.
- It will be published annually, taking into consideration three main pillars: regulatory framework, public services, and efficiency.
- The index incorporates digitalization, environmental sustainability, and gender equality into each indicator, ensuring a holistic and forward-thinking approach to business evaluation.
- It tracks ten parameters covering a firm’s lifecycle from starting, operating, closing, and reorganising.
- The index will expand in three stages, covering 54 economies initially and reaching up to 180 countries by 2026.
Features of B-Ready vis-a-vis EoDB
Comprehensive: Evaluates business environment from perspective of an individual firm and from point of private sector
development as a whole. EoDB evaluates same for individual small/medium firms.
Qualitative: Examines regulatory burden on firms and quality of regulation. EoBD examined only burden of regulation on firms.
Balanced: Collects both de jure (statutory laws) and de facto (practical) information on firms. In EoDB, certain indicators covered only de-facto regulations while certain covered only de jure.
Diverse: Covers all major topics unlike EoDB that excluded some important topics like employing labor
What is the World Bank Group?
It is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low and middle-income/developing countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. It was established along with the IMF at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. The WB is the collective name for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA), two of five international organizations owned by the WB Group.