It was easiest to do business in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana in 2019, according to the rankings based on the fourth edition of the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP).
UP has achieved second position in the State Business Reform Action Plan 2019 — Ease of Doing Business annual ranking released by the Union Commerce Ministry’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade DPITT) in Delhi on Saturday.
The report was released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
UP has jumped from 12th position in BRAP 2017-18 to second position in BRAP-19, taking a remarkable leap of 10 positions. UP has left several leading states like Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra behind in the EODB ranking.
In the BRAP-19, UP has implemented 186 reforms out of 187 suggested by the DPIIT. This year’s exercise was completely based on user feedback, therefore, attaining the second rank across the country indicates that entrepreneurs have been receiving the true benefits of the reforms introduced by the UP government. These reforms are spread across several areas such as labour regulation, online single press release, Udyog Bandhu, Infrastructure & Industrial Development department, access to information and transparency, land administration, construction permit, commercial disputes resolution and inspection enablers etc.
More than 20 departments, such as Invest UP (Udyog Bandhu), Labour department, Pollution Control Board, Commercial Tax, Energy, Stamp & Registration, IDAS, Excise, Food Safety and Drug and many others departments were part of this journey in implementing these reforms.
Successful implementation of Nivesh Mitra in UP has been instrumental in achieving this top position in Ease of Doing Business. In a period of two years, Nivesh Mitra received around 2,29,936 no-objection certificate (NOC) applications out of which it has already disposed off 94 per cent applications to grant NOC/licenses to entrepreneurs.
Lauding the achievement, UP’s Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana said, “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been emphasising to impart transparency and best practices to business-to-government (B2G) interactive procedures through use of technology. Our government has been successful in improving ease of doing business by introducing various IT driven modules. Nivesh Mitra is one of such successful tools.”
Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Alok Tandon said that Uttar Pradesh’s remarkable journey in EODB was a testimony to the fact that Nivesh Mitra portal had now become an integral and efficient part in bridging the gap between the industrial demands and expectations with government machinery.
Additional Chief Secretary (Infrastructure and Industrial Development) Alok Kumar said, “Maximum approval of BRAP-19 reforms and higher user feedback satisfaction record on Nivesh Mitra portal have played a critical role in achieving this remarkable milestone for Uttar Pradesh. Initiatives like monthly ranking of all 75 districts on EODB parameters shall further pave a path in attaining many more heights for UP towards creating conducive business environment.”
Invest UP CEO Neena Sharma said that UP’s second position in Ease of Doing Business ranking clearly indicated wider acceptance of Nivesh Mitra portal among industry.
“Nivesh Mitra portal has received total 18,120 grievances from entrepreneurs till now, of which 17,752 have been successfully resolved at an outstanding resolution rate of 98 per cent,” the CEO said.