Telangana best in providing business ambience

Hyderabad: The Telangana State has emerged as one of the top states in the country in providing a conducive 'Business Environment'. The State has shown the best performance leaving many states behind in the creation of business environment, according to the Export Preparedness Index -2021- released by the Niti Aayog on Friday. The report said Telangana was also one among the eight states that have scored above the national average Growth, Orientation & Export diversification.

It said Telangana, as a landlocked state, has shown the best performance with 100 scores, leaving Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan behind. This time, Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat were ahead against other states in creating a conducive business environment. The report said that "this is primarily due to its innovation index performance and lower power cost. The state capital - Hyderabad is a hub for information technology (IT) and the pharmaceutical industry. This is also reflected in its top 10 export basket commodities, the report said.

Hyderabad is also emerging as a hotspot in the data centre space, IT, ITeS, pharmaceuticals, and cloud solution companies' presence in the state act as demand drivers for significant ticket investments. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) invests $70 million in its own Tier-IV data centre in Hyderabad. This has been reflected in its ease of doing business score of 48.6. Telangana's performance is positive. The state's efforts at improving the business environment are commendable.

The Index said that there is also scope for improvement in the state's performance in the future. In the export performance, the Niti Aayog report said that Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh are the only eight states that have scored above the national average in growth and export diversification. India's apex policy making body suggested that Telangana should improve its efforts in strengthening policy measures for better performance in the export preparedness index during the coming years. The state's performance in access to finance and research and development infrastructure also improved. In the export promotion policy, Telangana scored 73.82 points and 100 points in power availability, existence of district export action plan, valid export promotion policy and thrust sectors for export. The state has secured 97.75 points in the ease of doing business and 100 points in single window clearances and labour reforms.

The Niti Aayog suggested the state government to hold a greater number of capacity building and orientation workshops and trade fairs as the scoring in these categories is low when compared to other states. The report also asserted the need to set up more industrial corridors, IT and food parks and create more industrial land to facilitate more exports and boost the manufacturing sector in the coming days.