TS, AP Top World Bank 'Doing Business' Rankings

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have jointly topped the all-India State-wise 'Ease Of Doing Business' chart, as per a recent global business census conducted by the Union government and the World Bank, for the period July 1, 2015, to, June 30 2016.

The results of the census, announced by Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, is based of a 340-point business reform action plan. 17 States have implemented more than 50% of these reforms.

The 340 reform areas come broadly under categories including construction permit, environmental and labour registration, obtaining electricity connection, online tax-return filing, inspection reform, access to information and transparency, single window, land availability and commercial dispute resolution. The Centre reportedly plans to soon hold meetings with States to make changes in the reform areas through addition and deletion of certain areas.

As per the World Bank - which was one of the organizations that reviewed the evidence for the implementation of the reforms - the two Telugu States that stood low on the chart just last year, quickly ascended to the top. It also noted that low-income States including Chhattisgarh (97.32% implementation rate, fourth rank), Madhya Pradesh (97.01%, fifth), Jharkhand (96.57%, seventh), Rajasthan (96.43%, eighth), Odisha (92.73%, 11th), Uttar Pradesh (84.52%, 14th), Bihar (75.82%, 16th rank) climbed up the growth ladder rapidly this year in terms of ease of doing business.

During the announcement, Sitharaman said: "Last year only seven States had implemented over 50% of the total reform points, with no State having an implementation percentage of over 75%. But this year saw 17 States crossing the 50% implementation mark, with 16 states having an implementation of over 75%."

She also said that there was a healthy competition among States on ease of doing business. This exercise would further push the government's agenda to transform India forward.

"We are now looking at broad-basing the reform drive," the Union Minister said, and exuded confidence that the competition will only lead to all States developing at a pace never seen before.