Andhra tops in business reforms, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Telangana

Andhra Pradesh has topped in the country in terms of implementing the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) to enhance the ease of doing business in the country, as per a report released by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh has topped in the country in terms of implementing the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) to enhance the ease of doing business in the country, as per a report released by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on Saturday.

The report, which covered 180 specific reform action plans carried out by States, was based on the feedback of over 35,000 participants, who considered Uttar Pradesh as the second best in implementing the business reforms followed by Telangana.

Ranking of states in the order of ease of doing business:

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Uttar Pradesh
3. Telangana
4. Madhya Pradesh
5. Jharkhand
6. Chhattisgarh
7. Himachal Pradesh
8. Rajasthan
9. West Bengal
10. Gujarat

In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government launched the Business Reform Action Plan ranking to promote a healthy competition among the States for improving the ease of doing business for investors.

In this edition, more than 180 reform points spread across various business regulatory areas were considered. These included easy access to information, improvement in labour laws, speedy construction permits, single window system, land acquisition and States were judged on the basis of their performance in improving these policy issues.

“This competition is going to get healthier,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while unveiling the report.

“The fourth edition of Business Reform Action Plan used a robust methodology for deepening and widening the scope of business reform in which 100% weightage was given to the user feedback, which means, unless the impact of the reform was visible on the ground, the reform was not accepted,” said the government.

In the fourth edition of Business Reform Action Plan, Uttar Pradesh was the top performer in the northern region, while Jharkhand was at the best performer in the eastern region, Andhra Pradesh was adjudged the best in the southern region and Madhya Pradesh in Western India.

Delhi was considered the best performer among the Union territories and Assam was the best performer among the north-eastern states.

States, UTs with remarkable improvement since 2015

Lakshadweep improved its position by 18 positions, from 33rd in 2015 to 15th position in 2019, followed by Daman and Diu which improved from 33rd position to the 18th rank in 2019, an improvement of 15 positions.

Uttarakhand improved its position by 12 positions, from 23rd in 2015 to 11th position last year, followed by Himachal Pradesh which jumped 10 positions to reach the seventh position in 2019 from the 17th position in 2015.

Manipur improved its rank by four slots, from 33rd in 2015 to 29th in 2019, followed by Mizoram which improved by 3 positions, from 28th to 25th during the same period. Arunachal Pradesh also improved its ranking by 3 positions, from 32nd to 29th during the same period.

In Eastern India, West Bengal improved its position from 11th in 2015 to 9th in 2019, an improvement of 2 slots, while Madhya Pradesh improved its position by one notch, from 5th in 2015 to the 4th position in 2019.

These two states, West Bengal in Eastern India and Madhya Pradesh in Western India, have also been adjudged top performers in their respective regions.

(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)