Ease of Doing Business: States to come up with action plans

The Dollar Business Bureau The Central government has asked the States to come up with action plans towards ‘Ease of doing business’ by May 31, 2015. This was informed by Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India, at the Association Chamber of Commerce’s (ASSOCHAM) Industry Interactive session on Monday. Addressing the industry session, the DIPP secretary said that, after finalizing 25 focus areas for Make in India, the Centre has given 98 specific areas to the States to work on for creating a business-friendly environment for investors. The DIPP Secretary informed that the Centre had taken decisions in consultations with the Chief Secretaries of the States and the States are expected to submit the reports by May 31, 2015. Following this, in June and July 2015, a professional agency would be employed to do the ranking of States in ‘ease of doing business’, he added. Referring to ‘Make in India’, the Secretary said “Having integrated 14 government services into an e-biz platform, the overall motive is to expand similar set of functions to all the government departments including the States.” While informing that the Defence sector has been identified as one of the areas, the DIPP secretary said the sector is an ‘easy flower to pluck’, because along with the homeland security, the sector provides a worldwide business opportunity of US$ 250 billion in 7-8 years.  Besides raising the level to 49%, a lot of easing has been done in the defence production and about 60 % of the defence items are taken out of regulation, he added. Amitabh Kant further said that there is a need for promotion of the sectors like leather, gems and jewellery, textiles in terms of easing labour laws, for creating employment and increasing job intensity in manufacturing sector. On the Land Acquisition Act, the Secretary said the 2013 Land Acquisition Act is the most complicated law and the government will have to ensure that the Act is changed and made investor-friendly. Speaking at the meet, Rana Kapoor, president, ASSOCHAM, said that in order to revive the investment cycle and result in job creation, there is a need for creation of fast and timely approval process, including environment clearances to speed up on-ground execution of around 345 projects which are currently stalled. The ASSOCHAM president further urged the government to integrate the Foreign Trade Policy with ‘Make in India’ to promote sectors like textiles and electrical goods, that accounts for high domestic value addition.  The government must also help facilitate export growth in labour intensive sectors and creation of Indian brands, while also promoting investments in IT and Electronic hardware manufacturing by allowing special financial packages and dedicated industrial clusters.  

This article was published on March 31, 2015.