Andhra Ranks Highest On DIPP’s Ease Of Doing Business Index, Delhi Falls To 23rd Position

Andhra Pradesh scored the top position in the DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) and World Bank’s jointly released ease of doing business index for states, leaving behind industry-focussed states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

The next two spots for ease of doing business were grabbed by Telangana and Haryana respectively. It must be noted that Telangana dropped to the second spot after topping the rankings last year.

The rankings are in accordance with the third edition of DIPP’s Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP 2017). The final rankings were arrived at after combining “reform evidence score” and “feedback score”.

The ease-of-doing-business scorecard is divided into four parts:

• Top Achievers (above 95%, 9 states)
• Achievers (90-95%, 6 states)
• Fast Movers (80-90%, 3 states)
• Aspires (Below 80%, 18 states)

In 2016, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had jointly ranked in the No.  1 position in terms of ease of doing business, ahead of Gujarat — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state — which was number one in 2015.

Other Key Rankings Under BRAP 2017

• Six other top achievers were Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan respectively
• Jharkhand and Telangana scored 100.00% reform evidence score
• Unexpectedly, Maharashtra ranked 13th with a combined score of 92.71%
• Similarly, Tamil Nadu got the 15th rank with a combined score of 90.68%
• Delhi’s score deteriorated to 31.60%, from 47% in 2016, and it stood in the 23rd spot, behind Jammu and Kashmir, which took the 22nd spot with a 33.05% score

DIPP And World Bank’s Ease Of Doing Business Ranking Framework

This year, the DIPP carried out a comprehensive business-to-government (B2G) feedback exercise, whereby feedback was taken from businesses on the quality of implementation of the reforms claimed by the states and Union territories (UTs).

The feedback survey was based on a representative sample of users of reform services while the “reform evidence score” was allotted on the basis of 372 recommendations for reforms on regulatory processes, policies, practices, and procedures spread across 12 areas.

The reform areas taken into consideration for feedback and reform evidence score were:

• Registering property
• Inspection enablers
• Single-window system
• Land availability and allotment
• Construction permit enablers
• Environment registration enablers
• Obtaining utility permits
• Paying taxes
• Access to information and transparency enablers
• Sector specific
• Labour regulation enablers
• Contract enforcement

The Next Steps

In February 2018, the DIPP launched the much-awaited State Startup Ranking Framework. While sharing the objective behind the ranking exercise, the DIPP revealed seven pillars with 38 pointers, based on which each state would be ranked in June 2018.

As a run-up to this, in May 2018, it was further announced that the DIPP was actively engaging with state and UT governments over the past several weeks to help them prepare and participate in the State Startup Ranking exercise.

For instance, two rounds of video conferences were organised by the DIPP with all the states and UTs in March and April 2018. A dedicated team from the DIPP also visited all states and UTs to conduct ranking awareness and capacity building workshops.

Also, in order to provide exposure to state/UT officials about the process of developing the startup ecosystem in their respective regions, three knowledge exchange workshops were conducted at leading incubators in the country.

A total of 30 states and UTs participated in the DIPP exercise. The participants will now be evaluated on a score of 100, against 38 action points categorized in seven areas of intervention such as Startup Policy and implementation, Incubation support, Seed Funding, Angel and Venture Funding, Simplification of Regulations, Easing Public Procurement and Awareness & Outreach.

“The launch of the ranking framework has galvanized the states into action, thereby giving impetus to the startup movement across the country,” the ministry of commerce and industry said in a media statement.