Ease of doing business: DIPP portal for states on the cards

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will soon have a portal up and running, where states will update their progress on a set of 340 development parameters on a real-time basis, in a move aimed at promoting competition to improve the ease of doing business. The ranking will be done based on the report card of the states. This year, DIPP has circulated the criteria among all the states.

Last year, the World Bank ranked the states on 98 such parameters.

"Work is in progress and by April 1, we should be able to start the portal," a senior DIPP official said.

States, he said, will regularly update the progress on those parameters and DIPP would validate those improvements.

"Stakeholders, including companies or individuals, can also give feedback on the portal about the improvements made by states on each of those parameters," he said, adding that the move would help in generating healthy competition among states to boost ease of doing business.

Gujarat led the pack last year while Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand came in at second and third positions, respectively.

The parameters include time taken in giving power connections to manufacturing units, number of hours power is being supplied, land banks' availability for industrial use, digitised land records at local municipality offices and provision for e-filing for commercial disputes at district courts, among others.

The whole exercise is aimed at improving India's investment climate and its ranking in the World Bank's report.

India is currently ranked 130th among 189 nations in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2016 study.

With the exception of three specifications (getting credit, protecting minority investors and getting electricity), India does not feature in the top 100 in the 10 parameters of the World Bank.

The government is looking to bring India's ranking within top 50.