What is the Business- Ready Index?

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.

Q1: 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.

Source: Govt looking to align some indicators of India’s BRAP 2024 index with the World Bank’s B-READY index