In September 2021, the World Bank announced that it would scrap its ‘Doing Business’ report and rankings. The decision comes following internal reports pointing to “data irregularities” in its 2018 and 2020 editions.
According to an investigation conducted by Washington-based law firm WilmerHale, World Bank staff members allegedly changed data on China to improve its ranking on the ease of doing business, under pressure from the office of the then World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and the then chief executive Kristalina Georgieva and one of her advisers.
What was the main problem with this ranking system and why was India so keen on seeing its spot rise on the index? Watch this deep dive on the issue with Mitali Mukherjee.