Himachal has improved indicators for 'ease of doing biz'

The Himachal Pradesh government today said the state has improved its score in "ease of doing business" in 2016 and was placed 17th among states in the latest ranking.
"While evaluating the states on 98 points by Industrial Policy and Expansion Department, Government of India during September, 2015, Himachal had attained a score of 23.95 per cent and with efforts of the government, which laid emphasis on simplifying the Rules for attracting industrial investment, the scored improved to 65.48 in 2016," an official spokesman said.
It was "inappropriate" to question the ranking of Himachal Pradesh in 'ease of doing business' sector, the spokesman said.

The state government had successfully implemented 220 points out of 340 points which comprised environment, labour, construction rules, tax related reforms etc. And the progress on remaining points was in process.
Chief Secretary was monitoring this process personally and a review meeting in this regard would soon be held under chairmanship of the Chief Minister, he said.
The spokesman further said that in future all the permissions of various departments would be provided through single online web portal in coordination with the Industries Department so that investor's time was not wasted in getting permissions.

Stressing that simplification of procedures was a continuous process which would gain momentum with the active cooperation and suggestions of entrepreneurs and industrial associations; he hoped that the State would certainly improve its ranking in next evaluation.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have jointly topped the ease of doing business ranking while Gujarat was placed third in the list prepared by the World Bank and DIPP.
Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana occupied the fourth, fifth and sixth slots, respectively in the index based on degree of implementation of DIPP's 340-point Business Reform Action Plan.