Odisha ranks 14 in ACI ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 3: 

Big talks don’t pay much in business. That’s what has become pretty evident with the mediocre rank of the state in the Asian Competitiveness Institute (ACI) Ease of Doing Business index released yesterday where Odisha has ranked 14 among Indian states.

According to the report published by ACI — operating under Singapore based Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) — yesterday, Odisha has been ranked 14 while Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Goa and Andhra Pradesh have been ranked one to five respectively.

This is a significant drop as compared to the World Bank ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index released in September 2015 where Odisha was ranked seven.

According to reports, the metrics used by ACI and World Bank, however, differ widely. The ACI study extends the definition of ease of doing business beyond the core measure of business friendliness that the World Bank focuses on.

ACI’s index includes 81 indicators that include Business Friendliness (40 per cent weight), Attractiveness to Investors (40 per cent) and Competitive Policies (20 per cent). It also balances “hard data” from each state with the results of surveys undertaken amongst investors, government officials and academic experts in this area. Besides, the data used for the survey this year is from 2013-2014.

To its credit though, the State Government has announced an Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR) in 2015, launched a Start-up Policy recently and have started promoting Make in Odisha that are likely to improve future rankings and more importantly will help attracting investment to the state, if implemented properly.

It may also be noted here that as recently as on June 16, the Odisha Government directed the departments concerned to carry out reform measures on a priority basis to attract more investment to the state and ensure operating businesses become easier in the state.

The state now targets to achieve third position in the next assessment of Ease of Doing Business study to be done by World Bank and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the central government.