Red tape in India is "redder" than ever

The Hindustan Times ran an article last week on the extreme difficulty of doing business in India. According to the World Bank, India is ranked 132 among 185 economies in their "Doing Business 2012" report citing 12 required procedures which can take 27 days and can be expensive. No wonder then at a meeting held last month at the US Treasury Department, convened by the under secretary of treasury, Lael Brainard, a select group of American investors and corporate leaders gave a free and frank assessment of the current investment and business climate in India to visiting top Indian officials as "messy"



The Hindustan Times interviewed six different entrepreneurs who mainly cited extreme governmental interference and unnecessary meddling as the biggest hurdle faced in starting up a business in India (see table below):