Andhra Pradesh, Telangana best places to do business in India

New ease of doing business index aimed at implementing reforms in agricultural marketing finds Maharashtra, Gujarat ahead of others

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have emerged as the top states in terms of ease of doing business in the country.

The second edition of the government's ranking of various states, released on Monday, showed that apart from the two states, the states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are also in the top five rank.

Also released on Monday was a new index by the NITI Aayog which looks at implementation of reforms in making agricultural marketing easier in various states. The index showed Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan top the rankings.

The State Implementation of Business Reforms, 2016 is based on the ranking by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) tracks the level of implementation of norms by state governments making it easier to do business in.

Last year, DIPP had finalised a total list of 340 reforms which it had asked states to implement.

Haryana, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra — in that order, are those that are on the top ten.

The states had submitted evidence of implementation of 7124 reforms, a release by DIPP said.

"While last year only 7 states implemented more than 50 % of the reforms back then, this time 18 states have implemented more than that level", Commerce and Industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

States traditionally weak in this regard such as Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Meghalaya have scores between 0 and 1 on a scale of 100.