Jairam Ramesh hits at Modi's 'New India', says govt after 'bogus' rankings

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh Friday turned up the heat on the Union government saying "if they start an Ease of Fudging Data Index, Mr. Modi’s so-called 'New India' will top the charts!

Hyderabad: In less than 24 hours after the World Bank Group announced that it ended publication of its "Doing Business" report on country investment climates after a probe of data irregularities citing "undue pressure" by top bank officials, including then Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva, to boost China's ranking in 2017, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh Friday turned up the heat on Union government saying "if they start an Ease of Fudging Data Index, Mr. Modi’s so-called 'New India' will top the charts!"

The Congress leader tweeted: World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index was among the few global indices where India’s rank post-2014 was proclaimed as rising. Now the exercise has been found bogus & discontinued.

If they start an Ease of Fudging Data Index,Mr.Modi’s so-called ‘New India’ will top the charts!

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at critics of the ambitious Central Vista project and asserted that ease of living and ease of doing business was behind the spirit of the work being done under the initiative.

Modi made the remarks after inaugurating two new multi-storey swanky office complexes at Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Africa Avenue for over 7,000 employees of the Defence Ministry and the armed forces.

Earlier the World Bank said that the decision to wind up the doing business report came after internal audit reports had raised "ethical matters, including the conduct of former Board officials as well as current and/or former Bank Staff" and a board investigation conducted by the law firm Wilmer Hale.