Malaysia ranked 18 in 2016 World Bank ease of doing business

"Malaysia's improvements in the ease of doing business, such as, by reforming business registration requirements, have benefited local entrepreneurs, who now have fewer hurdles to comply with and more resources to focus on their business", said Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank Country Manager for Malaysia.

According to World Bank chief economist and senior vice-president, Kaushik Basu, "It is not impossible for India to be in top 100 ranking of ease of doing business report next year, if it continues with its set of planned economic reforms, including the crucial GST and cuts down on the bureaucratic cost of doing business".

The confusion arose because India was ranked 142 a year ago, but in the latest report it was revised to 134 based on new methodology.

The regulatory reform launched in 2014, aimed at making it easier to do business, "represents a great deal of an effort to create a more business-friendly environment, particularly in Delhi and Mumbai", the report has said.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank, said that reforms in India pushed its ranking upwards.

Zimbabwe has moved 16 places up on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business index as the economy warms up to Government initiatives.

The Bank annual report "Doing Business 2016, "measuring regulatory quality and efficiency" states that businesses in Pakistan estimated losses due to power outages at up to 34 percent of annual revenue, while capital (domestic and foreign) tends to be attracted to countries that are able to offer a reliable and competitively priced supply of electricity".

Globally, Georgia improved the most in the areas measured by Doing Business over the past 12 years. "Being recognized as a regional top improver does not mean that these economies have exemplary business regulation; instead, it shows that thanks to serious efforts in regulatory reform over several years, they made the biggest advances toward the frontier in regulatory practice", the report added.

The report said India is implementing reforms in a broad range of areas. The nation was on 142nd rank previous year.

Also, to get the full impact of doing business reform it was "important for India to work on two other fronts, infrastructure and inclusiveness". Now companies can get connected to the grid, and get on with their business, 14 days sooner than before.

"Surprisingly it has dropped five notches in "getting credit" category (from 128 to 133) and six notches in 'starting a business" category (111 to 117). Economies that undertook more than one reform included the UAE, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

The report also points out that less than half of the 32 economies in the Latin America and the Caribbean region implemented reforms during the past year.