‘Poor Feedback Cause Of Odisha’s Slide In Ease Of Doing Business Ranking’

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday attributed unsatisfactory feedback from industries to the further slide of the state in Ease of Doing Business Reforms ranking.

Talking to mediapersons here, Industries secretary Sanjib Chopra said that the feedback of the industries on the state government was not good. “We will examine the reasons of their poor feedback,” he added.

He further said that to move up in the Ease of Doing Business ranking, efforts have to be made at the ground level.

In his reaction, BJP leader Prithviraj Harichandan came down heavily on the state government for its failure to create an industry-friendly atmosphere in the state.

“The state government has failed to provide raw materials and land required by the industries,” he pointed out.

Harichandan further said Odisha’s ranking will down further in the days to come due to red-tapism and bureaucratic apathy.

Notably, the World Bank and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) have relegated Odisha to 14^th place in annual business ranking of states and Union Territories.

Odisha was 7^th in 2013-14, and the ranking had come down to 11^th in 2015-16.

While Andhra Pradesh topped the list this year, Telangana and Haryana are at the second and third position respectively.

DIPP in collaboration with the World Bank conducts an annual reform exercise for all States/UTs under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP).

The assessment under the BRAP 2017 is based on a combined score consisting of reform evidence score based on evidence uploaded by the states and the Union Territories and the feedback score based on the response from the actual users of the services provided to the businesses.

While 17 states have achieved a reform evidence score of more than 90 per cent, 15 have achieved a combined score of 90 per cent and above.

States having more than 80 per cent or more reforms evidence score represent 84 percent of the country’s area, 90 per cent of the population and 79 per cent of the GDP.