Haryana among top 3 states in ''ease of doing business'' rankings

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, July 10

Haryana has been ranked among the top three states in the final rankings of states in Ease of Doing Business (EODB) after Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), part of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with the World Bank released the final rankings of states and Union Territories in Ease of Doing Business (EODB).

The top ranking states as per the list are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Haryana while Jharkhand and Gujarat stood fourth and fifth respectively.

Andhra Pradesh had also topped the rankings last year. The Telugu Desam party led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had recently quit the NDA government at the Centre.

While another regional party, TRS has a government in Telangana, the remaining states of Haryana, Jharkhand and Gujarat are ruled by the BJP.

Haryana had a reform evidence score of 99.73 per cent and a feedback score of 82.90 per cent. Its overall score was 98.07 per cent.

The Congress-ruled Punjab was ranked 20th while the BJP-ruled hilly states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh were ranked 11th and 16th respectively.

Jammu and Kashmir was ranked at the 22nd spot. Industry body CII said with as many as 15 states achieving over 90 per cent total score in the designated parameters, the progress on improving the business climate over the last four years has been remarkable and is now visible on the ground.

The rankings have been introduced by the Centre to initiate state-level business reforms as India has been trying to improve its rankings in the global EODB score.

Last year, India jumped 30 spots in the World Bank rankings to break into the top 100 list.

DIPP in collaboration with the World Bank conducted an annual reform exercise for all states and UTs under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP). The aim of this exercise is to improve delivery of various Central Government regulatory functions and services in an efficient, effective and transparent manner.

The reform plan has expanded from 285 to 372 action points till 2017. States and UTs have conducted reforms to ease their regulations and systems in areas such as labour, environmental clearances, single window system, construction permits, contract enforcement, registering property and inspections.

States and UTs have also enacted Public Service Delivery Guarantee Act to enforce the timelines on registrations and approvals.

The current assessment under the BRAP 2017 is based on a combined score consisting of reform evidence score that is based on evidences uploaded by the states and UTs and feedback score that is based on the feedback garnered from the actual users of the services provided to the businesses.

It is for the first time that DIPP has introduced taking feedback to ensure that the reforms have actually reached ground level. DIPP has already shared proposed reforms for the next year with the state and UT governments.

As systems developed in last three years have matured during the existing assessment cycles and the importance of the feedback from the users and success of obtaining user feedback in BRAP, 2017 has proved, the next year’s assessment will be entirely based on user feedback.

“The state reform exercise under Ease of Doing Business in India is creating a lot of interest in other countries like Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia which proves that such reforms are imperative for improving the business and regulatory environment,” an official statement said.