Andhra Pradesh has topped the country in the latest ease of doing business rankings, according to the State Business Reform Action Plan 2020 (State BRAP) ranks released on Saturday.
Ease of Doing Business (EODB) is a joint initiative by the Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the World Bank to improve the overall business environment in the States.
The State has stood first in the overall ranking of the State business process reforms undertaken during 2019. These rankings represent the ease of doing business in the State with increased transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the government regulatory functions vis-a-vis the business enterprises.
The ranks were released by the Department of Industrial Promotion and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India through a video conference by Minister for Finance Nirmala Seetharaman. Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal was also present.
Minister for Industries, IT Mekapati Gowtham Reddy said that the ranking encapsulated the effort of the A.P. government in ensuring true business reforms leading to actual ease of doing business with low cost of starting an enterprise and quick single desk approvals.
Revival measures
“A.P. is the first State to take measures to revive the economy hit by the global pandemic and revive the small and medium scale industries with a ReSTART package fulfilling 90% of the promises made to the electorate and businesses in the very first year of governance. We are happy that the investors have reposed faith in us and gave good ranking during survey,” said Mr. Gowtham Reddy.
The EODB initiatives to enable conducive business environment in the State ranged from reforms in development of online systems, enhancing transparency to regulating inspections covering entire life-cycle of business.
The Business Reform Action Plan 2019 released by DPIIT contains a list of 80 reforms (187 reform action points) to be implemented by 19 State departments and Andhra Pradesh had achieved 100% compliance.
