Ease of doing business rankings 2018: Andhra Pradesh tops the list, Telangana slips to second
In the latest ease of doing business rankings, those in the list of top 10 states include Haryana (3rd) Jharkhand (4th), Gujarat (5th), Chhattisgarh (6th), Madhya Pradesh (7th), Karnataka (8th), Rajasthan (9th) and West Bengal (10th)
Andhra Pradesh topped the ease of doing business index for states, prepared by the Centre and
the World Bank.
Telangana, which scored the highest points last year, was relegated to the second position.
Industrial states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were at a remote 13th and 15th positions,
respectively, but Gujarat came at fifth position and Karnataka was at eighth place in the list of 18
top-scorers, which included West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The ease of doing business index is jointly prepared by the Commerce Ministry and the World
Bank. The latter will come out with its own ease of doing business report in a few days. Last
year (ranking for 2016), India achieved the 100th position, from an earlier 130th in 2015.
The idea behind ranking states is to induce competition to attract investment and improve the
business climate, an official involved with the exercise said.
The ranking is done on 372 parameters that include regulatory processes, policies, practices
and procedures spread across 12 reform areas. One of the parameters included was paying
taxes, since new reform points have been added post implementation of GST.
In this year’s edition of rankings, the Centre carried out a comprehensive business-togovernment
feedback exercise and a response was taken from businesses, architects and Bar
Councils of states and UTs on the quality of implementation of the reforms by states.
Jharkhand scored 100% in “reform evidence”.
The Commerce Ministry, which takes up the exercise of ranking the states, said that 17 states
have achieved a reform evidence score of more than 90%, and 15 have achieved a combined
score of 90% and more.
“The states which have achieved 80% or more reforms evidence score represent 84% of the
country’s area, 90% of the country’s population and 79% of India’s GDP,” it said.
The national capital Delhi’s score came at 33.99%, from 47% in 2016, and it stood at the 23rd
spot in this year’s rankings.
The North Eastern states, except Assam, continued to be at the bottom of the ladder.
Touted as India’s most industrialised state, Maharashtra occupied the 13th slot with a reform evidence score of 97.29 per cent and a feedback score of 50.29 per cent.
DIPP said 17 states have achieved a reform evidence score of more than 90 per cent and 15 have achieved a combined score of 90 per cent and more. The states which have achieved 80 per cent or more reforms evidence score represent 84 per cent of the country’s area, 90 per cent of the country’s population and 79 per cent of India’s GDP.
DIPP Secretary, Ramesh Abhishek told ET NOW, ” The states are doing far better than what they have been doing in the last 2 years. They have really improved. You have got so many states who have gone above 90 per cent, 9 states above 90 per cent, 9 states above 80 per cent. So, you have 18 states actually, who have got more than 80 per cent score in the ranking, this actually is a great message. Almost 90 per cent of the population of the country is covered by these 18 states and they are improving dramatically so this momentum of doing ease of business will continue.”
The government, presenting the 2018-19 Budget, had identified 372 action points for states which they would carry out in a mission mode. The parameters include areas such as construction permit, labour regulation, environmental registration, access to information, land availability, and single window system.
In the World Bank’s latest “Doing Business” report, India’s place remained unchanged from last year’s ranking of 130 among the 190 countries.