Services quality to be included for states' ranking

Government is proposing to expand the parameters for ranking of states on 'ease of doing business' by including quality of services provided by them, like hours of power supply.
For the next year's ranking of the states in terms of 'ease doing business', the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has sent a set of over 300 questions to all the states and industry chambers seeking their views.
"After getting their views by the end of the month, the DIPP would finalise the questions and again send to the states for their answers," a senior official said.
Earlier this year, the department had circulated a set of 285 questions to all states as part of the same initiative.

The official said that for next year's ranking, quality of delivery of services would also be included in the questionnaire.
Citing the example of power sector, the official said that states are giving power connections to manufacturing units in few days "but this time we are asking about the number of hours power is being supplied".

In the last year's set of questions, the DIPP had asked about land banks' availability for industrial use, digitised land records at local municipality office and provision for e-filing for commercial disputes at district courts, among others.
For next year's ranking, the number of questions are expected to be raised to 330 to 340 and the DIPP is requesting the World Bank to release the report next year also.

The whole exercise is aimed at improving India's investment climate and its ranking in the World Bank's report.
India is currently ranked 142nd among 189 nations in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2015 study. With the exception of two parameters (getting credit and protecting minority investors), India does not feature in the top 100 in the remaining parameters.
This year, Gujarat was ranked on the top among states, on the ease of doing business index, while Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand were placed at the second and third positions, respectively.
Others in the list of top ten states providing a better climate for businesses include Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odhisa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.