Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have jointly topped the ease of doing business ranking, while Gujarat has slipped to the third position in the list prepared by the World Bank and the Indian government’s department of industrial policy and promotion this year. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana occupied the fourth, fifth and sixth slots in the index based on the degree of implementation of the government’s 340-point Business Reform Action Plan.
The Action Plan includes reforms on 58 regulatory processes, policies, practices or procedures spread across 10 reform areas spanning the lifecycle of a typical business. These are mainly single window clearance, tax reforms, labour and environment reforms, dispute resolution and construction permit. In the 2015 index, Gujarat featured at the top, with Andhra Pradesh grabbing the second position and Telangana the 13th. The 2016 Index shows those in the list of top 10 states providing a better climate for businesses include Jharkhand (7th), Rajasthan (8th), Uttarakhand (9th) and Maharashtra (10th).