Gujarat and Delhi are India’s most investment-friendly states. Bihar and Jharkhand are the worst. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil du are the most corrupt states for doing business. West Bengal is the most difficult for land acquisition, environmental clearances and approvals. These are the findings of the recent “The NCAER State Investment Potential Index”, released by the tiol Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), which evolved an index to grade states on five main issues: Labour, infrastructure, economic climate, political stability and governce, and perceptions of a good business climate. The report contains two types of rankings: First, N-SIPI 21, an index that ranks 21 states on the five issues, including through industry surveys; second, N-SIPI 30 which includes all states - including nine not covered by industry surveys - and are based on four issues, excluding perception.
The data reveals that Gujarat tops the N-SIPI 21 index, followed by Delhi and Tamil du, while Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil du top the N-SIPI 30 index.
Bihar and Jharkhand fall in the bottom five states in both rankings.
In May 2016, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) listed how Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party was making it easier to do business, adding that the Centre was working with Delhi and Maharashtra to propel India’s rank into the Top 50 in global ease-of-doing-business rankings.
Corruption is the biggest issue faced by businesses, getting approvals comes second A whopping 79 per cent of industry respondents said corruption was a major issue, followed by approvals before starting business (72.1 per cent) and getting environmental clearances (66.7 per cent). Earlier this year, India was ranked 76 out of 168 countries in Transparency Intertiol’s Corruption Perception Index 2015. In a recent editorial on crony capitalism, however, The Economist said: “Encouragingly, India seems to be cleaning up its act. In 2008 crony wealth reached 18 per cent of GDP, putting it on a par with Russia. Today it stands at three per cent, a level similar to Australia. The pin-ups of Indian capitalism are no longer the pampered scions of its business dysties, but the hungry founders of Flipkart, an e-commerce firm.” (IANS)