Who will win easy biz race? AP or TS?

Sibling rivalry between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is real, whether we admit it or not. This rivalry is more evident when it comes to scoring high in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings which are currently under the process of evaluation for 2016 at the Union Commerce & Industry ministry’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

DIPP kicked off the EoDB rankings in 2015 to inculcate and improve healthy competition among various states in the country. There is also a larger goal behind this idea. India has set in motion a series of measures to enhances its global EoDB ranking which currently stands at 130 (2016) out of 189 countries. So, a better investment climate in states will obviously improve its standing in the global list.

That’s one of the reasons that prompted the Union Commerce ministry to go for the ease of doing business rankings for states as it would encourage the latter to initiate reforms and improve investment climate in order to compete with other states and attract more investments.

Given the complexities involved in measuring investment conditions in various states and to give a professional touch to the whole process, the ministry had roped in World Bank which does the annual global EoBD ranking exercise for countries, to take up a similar professional exercise for states in India.

For the 2015 rankings, an elaborate exercise was undertaken to measure states on 98 action points in 10 categories. Gujarat emerged as the top State followed by Andhra Pradesh in the second place in the 2015 rankings announced in July last year. Telangana was at a distant 13th place, raising eyebrows.

It’s no surprise that these rankings kicked up row as all the states that occupied top positions were either ruled by BJP or its allies. Some states even attributed ulterior motives to the rankings, saying the move was aimed at discouraging investments in non-NDA ruled states.

Stung by the criticism, DIPP broadened the evaluation process and increased the number of action points to 348 for the current year rankings. It also launched an online portal to track the implementation process real-time and display rankings of the states on the basis of number of reforms undertaken and submitted by them from time to time.

The Telangana government, disappointed by its low 13th rank in 2015, turned aggressive and began implementing reforms from August 2015 itself, with an aim to capture the top rank this year. “We have reservations about the process and the way 2015 rankings were finalised. We believe the process adopted by World Bank has not captured the essence of TS-iPASS, our game changing industrial policy that received accolades in India and abroad.

Nevertheless, we have been making concerted efforts from August 2015 itself to improve ease of doing business and we are confident that Telangana will secure top position this year,” Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Telangana, told this newspaper earlier this year.

Andhra Pradesh, which hogged national limelight for securing the second rank last time despite not having a capital city of its own, has also stepped up efforts to get top ranking this time around.However, the rivalry between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for a better EoBD ranking had taken a nasty turn when the TS government charged Andhra Pradesh of copying its web designs and data formats submitted to DIPP.

Telangana IT and Industries Minister dashed off a letter in July this year to Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman seeking action against states which indulged in plagiarism. However, he avoided mentioning name of Andhra Pradesh in the letter. A case was also registered in Telangana on this contentious issue. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh had denied all the allegations.

Not just Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, several other states have also been trying hard for a better rank this time around. This has amply been reflecting in the real-time scorecard displayed on the EoDB portal, with states like Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh leading the charts at different points of time.

At the last count (as on October 7, 2016), Telangana is at the number one position for 2016 with a staggering score of 96.98 per cent. It scored just 44.45 per cent for the 13th rank last year. Andhra Pradesh is in a neck and neck race with Telangana, with the second rank and a score of 96.97 per cent, a significant improvement from its score of 70.12 per cent last year.

However, these 2016 rankings are still highly fluidic as the process is still under the evaluation stage and the final rankings may be different. Besides, there is an intense competition for top ranks with as many as nine states scoring over 90 per cent this
year so for.

However, this is not the first time that Telangana has stood at the top of the chart this year. AP has also occupied the top slot several times during the process. But we will know final rankings only after the Union Commerce and Industry ministry announces the final list later this month. Hopefully, one of the two Telugu states tops the list while the other occupies the second position. That will be a real proud movement for all the Telugu people, in India and around the world.