Nagaland among states to rank lowest in ease of doing business ranking

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Sep. 5 (EMN): Nagaland was ranked joint 29th, the lowest in the rung, among 36 states and union territories in the ‘ease of doing business’ list prepared by the department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

The bottom 29th position was shared among eight states: Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim and Tripura.

The ranking is based on the implementation of the Business Reform Action Plan 2019, according to a report released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday.

Andhra Pradesh topped the list for the third time in a row.

Registering a jump of 10 places in the rankings, Uttar Pradesh occupied the second position in 2019 as against 12th in 2018.

Releasing the report, Sitharaman said that states have taken up the exercise in its true sense and it would help states and UTs to become better place to do business.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said these rankings reflect the efforts that states and UTs are making to better their systems and processes. It is also a wake-up call for those states that have slipped in the ranking, he said.

Goyal said that the ministry is working on steps like creating a single-window system for approvals and clearances.

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

The parameters include areas such as construction permit, labour regulation, environmental registration, access to information, land availability and single-window system.

This was the fourth edition of the report, which was first released in 2015. The Business Reform Action Plan 2018-19 includes 181 reform points covering 45 business regulatory areas such as access to information, single window system, labour, and environment.

The DPIIT in collaboration with the World Bank conducts an annual reform exercise for all states/UTs under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP).

In the World Bank’s latest ‘Doing Business’ report, India has jumped 14 places to the 63rd position.

(With inputs from PTI)