Andhra Pradesh and Telengana topped the all-India ranking on the state-wise ease of doing business ranking, both getting 98.78 per cent each. Gujarat, which used to be leading, followed with 98.21 per cent, Chhattisgarh with 97.32 per cent and Madhya Pradesh with 97.01 per cent.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the report on State-wise Ease of Doing Business rankings today. The states had to have implemented reforms on 58 regulatory processes, policies, practices, or procedures spread across 10 reform areas spanning the lifecycle of a typical business.
These include single window clearance, tax reforms, labour and environment reforms, dispute resolution and construction permit. In 2015 Index, Gujarat featured at the top, with Andhra Pradesh grabbing the second position and Telangana 13th.
The rankings are on the basis of 340-point business reform action plan and their implementation by the states. This covers the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. The states which lags behind include Kerala, Goa, Tripura, Daman and Diu, Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Puducherry, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Meghalaya , Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.
Thirty-two states and union territories submitted evidence of implementation of 7,124 reforms which were reviewed by the World Bank team and later seconded by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's (DIPP’s) team. While only seven States had implemented over 50 per cent of the total reform points last year, this year 17 States crossed the 50 per cent implementation mark and 16 states have an implementation of over 75 per cent.
This competition among states, the Central government hopes, will improve business climate to attract domestic as well as foreign investments. India was at a dismal 130 among 190 other economies, according to the World Bank report.
