K'taka expresses reservations over ease of business ranking

: Expressing reservations over Karnataka slipping to the 13th spot from 9th in the 'Ease of doing business' report this year, the State government today demanded that the parameters be made more broad-based for a fairer evaluation.
Karnataka Industries Minister R V Deshpande said he would write to UnionCommerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this regard.
"Karnataka basically has an ecosystem, rich human resources, responsible and industry-friendly government. Last time when the rating was announced, I had written toNirmala Sitharaman, bringing to her notice about theparameters," he told reportershere.
Saying that although he was not complaining, but there was a need to add to the existing parameters which was why he had suggested that business friendly ecosystem developed by the state, facilitation mechanism, industry infrastructure, quality manpower, labour situation andinvestments approved be taken into consideration. This had still not been considered and he was yet to geta response.

"Again I will be writing to Nirmala Sitaraman and we will also raise the issue at the meeting called by heron November 16 regarding ease of doing business," he added.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana jointly topped the charts while Gujarat slipped to third spot in the report prepared by the World Bank andthe Indian government's department of industrial policy andpromotion this year.

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana occupied fourth, fifth and sixth slots in the index, based on the degreeof implementation of the government's 340-point BusinessReform Action Plan.
Stating that he was sure that Karnataka would improve its ranking by working in areas where it is lacking, Deshpande urged the Commerce Minister to look into the suggestions and that the parameters be more broad-based bygiving importance to key areas like investments, manpower and infrastructure while evaluating the state's performance.

He said that out of 340-point Business Reform Action Plan,Karnataka has complied to 301 points with 88.39 per centimplementation score.
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Statng that Karnataka is number one in terms of investments, Deshpande said the State has received most investments, while states ranked at the top in ease of doing business report areactually far below and not even received 25-30 percent of investments Karnataka has got.
He said that as per the latest DIPP report fromJanuary to July, Karnataka is the number one state in terms of investment with Rs1,09,773 crore. Andhra Pradesh (joint winner in the report) isat the fifth place with an investment of Rs 10,848 crore. Gujarat, which is third in the ranking, is second in terms of investmentwith Rs 39,750 crore.

Not wishing to politicise the ranking, Despande saidevery State tries to do its best in ease of doing business to attract investments and there is an atmosphere of healthy competition.
Admitting that Karnataka needed to work on certain areas like plan approvals and construction permissions, he said, "Revolutionary changes have to come in corporations, municipalities and local bodies."
He also said that according to the ranking, Karnataka has fallenshort in labour department, factories and boilers departmentand law departments, where there is a need to set up commercialcourts in districts and a bench at High Court.