No change in ease of doing biz rankings: DIPP

​Hyderabad: In a development that could disappoint the Telangana government, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry, stated that no error was committed while calculating the ease of doing business doing (EoBD) rankings announced recently and the rankings would remain same.

“The World Bank team has done minor corrections to data after the recent announcement of the ranking. But it will not impact rankings. All the ranks will remain the same,” Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, DIPP, told The Hans India. He was in the city on Wednesday during the preview of IKEA store which opened its doors for public on Thursday. His comments assume significance in the wake of the Telangana government lodging a complaint with DIPP on the mistakes committed during the calculation of scores for awarding EoDB rankings this year.

Andhra Pradesh ranked first in the latest rankings announced by DIPP, followed by Telangana in second place. However, the difference in overall scores between the two Telugu states is just 0.02 per cent. As per the latest data, AP topped the list with 98.30 per cent while Telangana stood second with a score of 98.28 per cent. Gujarat, the native state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which came at fifth place, also complained about the methodology, giving credence to the Telangana’s argument.

But the DIPP Secretary maintained that everything was done transparently. “Unlike in the past, the rankings this time were calculated based on evidence of reforms submitted by the states and also feedback taken from those who used the reforms,” he explained.

Feedback was taken on 78 Action Points out of 372 included in this year’s evaluation. “We collected names and contact details of people who used industrial reforms in various states. The list came to around 50,000 people. The World Bank team randomly selected a sample of 5,800 people and carried out feedback survey among them,” he said. The DIPP uploaded the details of how each state fared in feedback survey and evidences. “We are giving the entire excel sheet with formula as to how the scores have been calculated. Had we given this excel sheet earlier, no state would have raised objections,” Abhishek said.

He further said: “The problem is that it is a close call and the difference is in second decimal points between states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand. If we calculate rankings based on single decimal point, most of the states will have the same score. Last time also, we calculated rankings up to second decimal points as the rankings have to be based on arithmetic”. He further said that investments would depend on many factors, not just EoBD rankings. “It depends on infrastructure, skill development, the willingness of a government to facilitate businesses,” he explained.

He heaped praise on the Telangana government for doing everything to attract investments. “Getting No 1 or 2 doesn’t mean that the state will get investments. Some states which are ranked above 12 are getting more investments than those ranked above,” he said. Telangana has done better than all other states in evidence-based reforms. The DIPP Secretary said the methodology would be changed next year. “What we are thinking now is that everything will henceforth be based on feedback as most of the states have already implemented reforms,” he observed.