Assessment of States / UTs based on implementation of Business Reforms Action Plan for the year 2020 declared
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana Top Achievers
Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Uttar
Pradesh under the Achievers category.
We are implementing responsive reforms by nudging the states and UTs: Nirmala Sitharaman
Ease of Doing Business now being seen across the country in spirit of
competitive and collaborative federalism: Piyush Goyal
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and
Telangana are the Top Achievers based on implementation of
Business Reforms Action Plan. Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Odisha, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh figure under the Achievers category.
While Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal
have been placed in the Aspirers category, Andaman &
Nicobar, Bihar, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli,
Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Puducherry and
Tripura have been clubbed under the Emerging Business
Ecosystems category.
Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Minister of
Finance and Corporate Affairs, announced the assessment of States/UTs
under Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) 2020, the 5th edition
of the BRAP exercise in New Delhi today. The announcements were made in the
august presence of Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry,
Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Anurag Jain,
Secretary, DPIIT and Senior Government officials of State and UT
administration.
Speaking after release of assessment report, Sitharaman
said that the nature of reforms had undergone change since 1991. “The reforms
now taking place are responsive reforms. Unlike the reforms of 1991, which were
given to us for implementation, there is no compulsion now. The objective is to
see what will bring out improvement in systems and ensure better lives for us.
An element of nudge has been brought into every layer of the government.
Nudging cannot be by the government only and the industry has a big role to
play there,’ the Finance Minister said. The Finance Minister appreciated the
changes brought in the assessment framework of implementation under the Business
Reforms Action Plan over years.
Speaking at the event, Piyush Goyal, Minister for
Commerce & Industry said that the assessment has evolved from
evidence-based to 100% feedback in multilingual format. He said that the
purpose of this BRAP exercise is to infuse a culture of learning from each
other’s best practices and improve upon the business climate in each State/UT
with a unified objective for India to emerge as a most favoured Investment
Destination across the globe
“When Prime Minister gave the thrust in 2014 to
improving the ease of doing business, one of his major thrust areas was that
while we are working at the international level for improving our ranking, we
must involve all the stakeholders including the States and UTs in our effort to
get them on board so that people really feel the difference and change in their
ecosystem, which will lead to ease of living,” Goyal said.
“The process started in 2014 has started bearing
fruit as we go along. Rather than ease of doing business being limited to a few
areas, few cities and few businesses, we are seeing it being reflected across
the country through the spirit of competitive federalism and also of
collaboration”, the Commerce & Industry minister added.
Secretary, DPIIT Anurag Jain said that the
difference between various states/UTs was so small that it did not make sense
to rank them but rather put them in various categories.
The BRAP 2020 includes 301 reform points covering
15 business regulatory areas such as Access to Information, Single Window
System, Labour, Environment, Land Administration & Transfer of Land and
Property, Utility Permits and others. 118 new reforms were included to further
augment the reform process. Sectoral reforms with 72 action points spread across
9 sectors namely Trade License, Healthcare, Legal Metrology, Cinema Halls,
Hospitality, Fire NOC, Telecom, Movie Shooting and Tourism were introduced for
the first time to expand the scope of reform agenda.
The broader aim is to boost investor confidence,
foster business friendly climate and augment Ease of Doing Business across the
country by introducing an element of healthy competition through a system of
assessing states based on their performance in the implementation of Business
Reforms Action Plan. In a departure from the previous years, where States/UTs
were ranked, this year they have been placed under the four categories viz. Top
Achievers, Achievers, Aspirers and Emerging Business Ecosystems. The objective
of assessing the States/UTs is not to create a hierarchy amongst States/UTs but
to rather create an enabling framework wherein learnings can be shared amongst
States/UTs which in turn will lead to a nationwide spill over of good practices.
The assessment gives full weightage to the feedback obtained from actual
users/respondents at the ground level, who provided their feedback about the
effective implementation of reforms.
DPIIT since 2014 has been assessing States/UTs
based on their performance in implementation of prescribed reforms in Business
Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) exercise. Till date, assessment of States/UTs has
been released for the years 2015, 2016, 2017-18 and 2019.
It is commendable to note the endeavour of the States/UTs in
implementing the reforms and with that spirit, DPIIT has assessed and grouped
States/UTs into broad category-wise segmentation to recognize and identify the
exemplary reform measures undertaken by the States/UTs to improve business
environment.