NL Correspondent
SRINAGAR: The turmoil in Kashmir has badly hit the economy of the state with World Bank J&K one of the poorest performers of economic reforms in India.
A senior official of Industries and Commerce department said the investors do not find J&K a suitable place to do business in view of security scenario of the state. “For the past few years, the state has witnessed some progress in establishing of new business units leading to progress in state's economy. But again the unrest has hit the economy of the state. It is not only the Valley that suffers by the unrest but also the Jammu region equally suffers badly,” the official said.
According to the report, ‘Assessment of state implementation of business reforms in India' the World Bank Group has ranked J&K at the 30th position of the 32 Indian states and Union territories while evaluating their performance of economic reforms.
The World Bank Group conducted the assessment of Indian states business reforms after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested it to support India's efforts to enhance India's competitiveness and increase manufactured exports.
The World Bank Group ranked J&K at 30th based on the 98-point action plan (ease of doing business) for business reforms to all states and Union territories in India. The implementation status of each state has been converted to a percentage, and based on this the state rankings have been calculated.
While based on the point act plan for business reforms, J&K has got 5.93 % ahead of three states-Meghalaya 4.38%, Nagaland 3.41% and Arunachal Pradesh 1.23%.
Gujarat has topped the list with 71.14 % following by Andhra Pradesh 70.12, Jharkhand 63.09, Chatisgarh 62.45 Madhaya Pradesh 62.00 and Rajasthan 61%.
The Indian capital New Delhi has stood at 15th number with 37.35 percent. While two northern Indian states Haryana and Punjab have ranked 14th and 16th position with percentage of 40.66% and 36.73% respectively.
The report says that the objective of the action plan was to lay out the first of a series of recommendations targeted at increasing transparency and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of various government regulatory functions and services for business in India.
It says the World Bank Group stands committed to support Indian states in their efforts to further improve the regulatory framework for business, and to help build bridges between states and the Centre to share knowledge, best practices and promote both competitive and cooperative federalism going forward.
The report says that while efforts at improving India's ranking in the doing business report do cover some of the regulatory issues pertaining to state governments but emphasis much more is required to be done at state governments' level to achieve the Prime Minister's vision of making India an easy place to do business.
The report has highlighted the innovations and achievements on individual reforms, so that states can easily identify counterparts who have achieved the reforms, and can reach out to learn directly from their peers.
