DIPP starts preparing reform framework for states' rankings

The Commerce and Industry Ministry has started working on a new set of reforms for states that will help them improve their rankings in ease of doing business.

"Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in its efforts to improve business climate in states, has started preparing the next set of business reforms for States to implement," the Ministry said in a statement today.

The states will be implementing business reforms of this new framework for next year's assessment of implementation of business reforms, it said.

In this regard, a workshop was organized with state government and Union Territory officials today, to brainstorm on ideas leading to the framework.

Nearly 20 states/UTs representatives participated and provided suggestions to the DIPP in the meeting.

"Many states recommended a feedback mechanism from beneficiaries, which should be made an integral part of the assessment framework," it said.

Other suggestions which were mentioned during the discussion included giving more weightage to key reforms; measure 'quality of service to industry; grouping of States/UTs with respect to their per capita income, rankings on outcome-based parameters like timelines for giving clearances/costs in providing NoCs/permits/clearances.

"Further, states with more than 90 per cent implementation of reforms were requested to handhold and guide the reform process in States/UTs with less than 40 per cent implementation of reforms in this year's assessment of reforms by States/UTs," it added.

This year, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have jointly topped the ease of doing business ranking while Gujarat has slipped to the third position in the list jointly prepared by the World Bank and DIPP.

The exercise of ranking states is aimed at promoting healthy competition among them with a view to improving business climate of the country to attract domestic as well as foreign investments.