States to be ranked on ease of doing business: DIPP

In a move aimed at prompting competitiveness among states to attract investments, DIPP will assess and rank them in terms of ease of doing business with the help of the World Bank and third-party agencies, a senior official said today.
India stands at 142 in the global list of World Bank's 'Doing Business' index.
"In June and July state governments will be assessed and ranked on ease of doing business in their respective states for which help was being sought from the World Bank and third party agencies," Atul Chaturvedi, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), said.

Chaturvedi added that states are striving to attract investments. By July-end, the result of the ranking would be declared, which would help in further alluring investments.
He said this while launching a Ficci-Grant Thornton report on the Food & Beverage (F&B) service industry in India.
According to the report, lack of quality infrastructure, shortage of skilled manpower, high real-estate costs, large number of licences needed to operate in the sector and a plethora of taxes are the key issues hampering growth of F&B service industry in India.

The report suggests that government's intervention in creating good infrastructure and developing skilled manpower will help boost the sector's growth.

It proposes that real estate costs can be reduced by lobbying with developers to develop a better formula of rent sharing and developing innovative models for rent.
Simplified licensing requirements with a single-window clearance approach and rationalisation of taxes levied on the restaurant industry are among solutions proposed in the report to effectively tackle licensing and taxation issues faced by the industry.
Chaturvedi stated that F&B emerged as one of the sectors, which receives highest FDI. Hence, the government is running awareness campaigns through digital and social platforms to attract both domestic and global investments.
Speaking about the way forward, Chaturvedi said that the government is now looking at identifying potential markets and then engaging with potential investors in specified and targeted interactions to convert prospective investments into real ventures.