Chief Secretaries of various states are not letting go of even a single point since no state wants to be seen as a laggard, officials of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said.
The DIPP maintains real-time rankings of states on the ease of doing business dashboard on the basis of reforms executed by each state. The final result is expected to be made public by the end of this month after thorough analysis and verification, so states can still improve their score, officials said.
“For every point they do not get or for a negative remark, they take it up with us to relook. Competition is aggressive this year as no one wants a political backlash on this account,” said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified. On June 24, Jharkhand led the tally with a 9.41% score, followed by Bihar and Telangana with 9.12%, and Madhya Pradesh with 5.29%. Gujarat, which topped the charts last year, was down at sixth place with a score of 4.12%.
The DIPP had last year engaged the World Bank in the exercise to make it more credible. The government hopes competition among states will improve business environment in the country and help India break into the top 100 in the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking. India is at 130 in the index at present.
“The results of this year’s ranking could have an impact on the upcoming elections as well,” the official cited earlier said. “Almost 10 states are in a very aggressive mode this year. States are taking this very seriously,” he said.
From ranking each state on 98 parameters last year, the Centre has increased the number of parameters to 338 for this year’s ranking. The main areas of reform for states to act upon include environmental registration, commercial dispute resolution, labour regulation, online filing of tax returns and single-window clearance.
In last year’s assessment it was found that only 32% of the proposed reforms were implemented across the country.
Source: The Economic Times