Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Indian economy is making “tremendous” progress and is adapting to the demands of life in the 21st century, Indian American Pepsico chairman Indra Nooyi said Nov. 1, a day after India jumped 30 places to rank 100th in the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ ranking, writes Lalit K Jha.

India, which was ranked 142nd when Narendra Modi government took office in 2014 and 130th last year, is the only large country this year to have achieved such a significant shift.

“India’s economy is making tremendous progress adapting to the demands of life in the 21st century, particularly when it comes to digital infrastructure and using technology to turn demonetization into remonetization,” Nooyi, 62, said.

“Given the Prime Minister’s commitment to making it easier for international companies to do business, I have a feeling that the pace of change will only accelerate, and before long Incredible India will be known as Innovative India,” Nooyi said in a statement issued by the U.S. India Strategic and Partnership Forum, of which she is a board member.

Lauding India for improving its ranking, the statement said this important achievement reflected the incredible progress the country has made in recent years in increasing the ease of doing business.

John Chambers, chairman of USISPF, congratulated Prime Minister Modi for this achievement.

“India’s future is brighter than ever thanks to the government’s willingness to embrace tough but essential economic reforms, such as demonetization and creating the Goods and Service Tax,” he said.

“This, in combination with unprecedented investments in its digital infrastructure and workforce, will only continue to strengthen the U.S.-India strategic partnership for years to come,” Chambers said.

India climbing a historic 30 spaces forward is due to reforms and policy changes that have been made by the Modi government, USISPF said.

This year’s ranking represents India’s highest ever increase and “signals the momentum for reforms” being made under the leadership of Modi, it said.

“India has streamlined the business incorporation process by combining elements for submission into a single form,” said Punit Renjen, USISPF board member and CEIO of Deloitte.

He commended the efforts made by India, saying they will greatly improve the ease of doing business for the services sector, and across all sectors.

The improvements over the past year have put India on this year’s World Bank list of top ten improvers for doing business among all countries across the world, said Mukesh Aghi, president of USISPF.

“We applaud the efforts made by Prime Minister Modi’s government. The 30-slot increase shows results made by the Prime Minister and will have a strong impact on Foreign Direct Investment in India going forward,” Aghi said.

USISPF said it aimed to build upon this already significant trajectory that has been built and is working with both local and the central governments to further these reforms and build FDI by engaging U.S. member companies in these efforts.