Nitish Kumar-led Bihar is followed by Telangana and Jharkhand on a ranking being done on real-time basis by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on business reforms and action plans.
These rankings are dynamic and may change on the basis of initiatives taken by states and union territories.
Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are fourth and fifth, respectively, in the ranking.
Bihar is leading the list with a score of 8.53 per cent. In the last year's final rankings, Bihar was at 21st position.
"Results (i.E rankings) may change frequently during this process. Final results will be available once the process is complete," it said.
To improve the business environment in the country, the Modi government started the practice of ranking states on their business-friendly initiatives last year. Gujarat was ranked on the top among states, on the ease of doing business index prepared by the World Bank but at present, on the real time basis, the state is placed at sixth position.
States and union territories are requested to upload the status of completed reforms by June 15. After that the DIPP with the help of World Bank will come out with the final rankings.
As of now, 16 states have provided details about reform measures initiated by them through the DIPP-managed portal. Among them, Bihar has given information on as many as 29 reforms -- the highest among the 16 states.
"Many states have informed about 200 plus reforms but so far maximum reforms have been verified for Bihar," an official said.
DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek in a tweet said, "States are in process of uploading ease of doing biz reforms done by them on DIPP portal. Ranking to happen only in July after validation".