India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’ is sometimes seen in the news. Which of the following has declared that ranking?

The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index is compiled and published by the World Bank through its annual Doing Business report. It ranks economies on how easily a local firm can start and run a business, so C is correct.

Why the others are wrong:

• OECD is a Paris-based forum of mostly developed countries that works on policy research and standards. It does not publish the EoDB ranking.
• World Economic Forum publishes the Global Competitiveness Report and the Global Gender Gap Report, not the EoDB index.
• WTO deals with international trade rules and dispute settlement from Geneva. It has no business-environment ranking.

Core concept: the index measures regulatory burden across indicators such as starting a business, construction permits, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and insolvency. It connects to Mains GS-III on economic reforms and the regulatory environment for investment.

Update: the World Bank discontinued the Doing Business report in 2021 after a review of data irregularities, so any current news on India's rank refers to older editions.

Trap: aspirants confuse it with the Global Competitiveness Report of the WEF, since both rank countries on business-friendliness. The publisher here is the World Bank.