The World Bank along with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) of the Union Ministry of Commerce has ranked Odisha 11th among the States in terms of ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
The report of Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms 2015-16 was released on Monday.
Odisha has slipped four places compared to its ranking released in September last year.
While Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were tied at the first place with 98.78 per cent, Gujarat, earlier in the number one slot, is down by two places to secure the third spot. Interestingly, Telangana has taken a major leap with its ranking 13th last year.
Odisha secured the 11th place with 92.73 per cent compared to its 7th position last year with a score of 52.12 points. Notably, Odisha was eyeing to find place in the top three slots with respect to Ease of Doing Business.
The assessment studies the extent to which the States have implemented the DIPP’s 340-point Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) for States/UTs 2015-16, covering the period July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2O16. The BRAP includes recommendations for reforms on 58 regulatory processes, policies, practices or procedures spread across 10 reform areas spanning the lifecycle of a typical business.
Data for this assessment were collected from the State Governments on the BRAP portal. The portal, among the first of its kind globally, allowed State Governments to submit evidence of implemented reforms. At least 32 State and UT Governments had submitted evidence of implementation of 7, 124 reforms. These submissions were reviewed by the World Bank team and validated by the DIPP team to study whether they met the objectives of the BRAP. The portal allowed for collaborative dialogue between the DIPP and the State Governments in finalising the evidence submitted. A total of 6,069 reforms were approved as implemented or not applicable on the portal.
The results of the assessment demonstrate that the States have increasingly risen to addressing the challenge of making it easier to do business. The national implementation average stands at 48.93 %, significantly higher than last year’s national average of 32 %. This demonstrates the great progress made by States this year.
It may be recalled that the Odisha Government had earlier this year unveiled the Odisha Industrial Development Plan (OIDP) with an aim to attract global investment in five focus sectors, agriculture and food processing, chemicals and petrochemicals, electronics, IT and IT-enabled services, textiles and downstream and ancillary industries.