How Maharashtra helped India get big jump in ease of doing business ranking
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Nov 02, 2017, 01.17 AM IST
MUMBAI: The big jump in India’s ease of doing business ranking has a lot to do with the reforms undertaken by the Maharashtra government.
Since ease of doing business in India is assessed based on data collected from Mumbai and Delhi, the performance of the two cities is key to improve the rank.
After India’s rank rose by just one point to a dismal 130 last year, the Maharashtra government decided to make concerted efforts on its part to help improve the country’s position. One of those was to engage with the World Bank to understand the measures that the state has to take and inform it about the reforms it has already undertaken.
Two meetings were held this year between WB officials and a team led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state officials said.
At one of the meetings held in July, a World Bank team comprising Charlotte Nan Jiang, Laura Sagnori Diniz and two consultants — Anuj Chaudhary and Harsh Jhanjaria — met top Maharashtra officials, one of them said. At the meeting, the state made a presentation before the WB team and informed them about the measures it has taken.
“In 2015 when we inquired about the dismal rankings, we were told about the inordinate time taken for getting construction permits in Mumbai,” said an official.
At the July meeting, the WB officials were told that Mumbai had reduced the number of permissions required for constructing a building to 8 from 42. The time taken to get clearances was also cut to 60 days from 160.
The WB team was not satisfied with the cost of getting a building permit in Mumbai, which they said was high compared with the per capita income. But they were told that the per capita income of Mumbai, and not of the country, should be considered for this since the buildings are constructed in the city where the income is higher, said an official.
The WB officials were also told that permissions for electricity connections were now given online and connections were provided within 9 days.
Since ease of doing business in India is assessed based on data collected from Mumbai and Delhi, the performance of the two cities is key to improve the rank.
After India’s rank rose by just one point to a dismal 130 last year, the Maharashtra government decided to make concerted efforts on its part to help improve the country’s position. One of those was to engage with the World Bank to understand the measures that the state has to take and inform it about the reforms it has already undertaken.
Two meetings were held this year between WB officials and a team led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state officials said.
At one of the meetings held in July, a World Bank team comprising Charlotte Nan Jiang, Laura Sagnori Diniz and two consultants — Anuj Chaudhary and Harsh Jhanjaria — met top Maharashtra officials, one of them said. At the meeting, the state made a presentation before the WB team and informed them about the measures it has taken.
“In 2015 when we inquired about the dismal rankings, we were told about the inordinate time taken for getting construction permits in Mumbai,” said an official.
At the July meeting, the WB officials were told that Mumbai had reduced the number of permissions required for constructing a building to 8 from 42. The time taken to get clearances was also cut to 60 days from 160.
The WB team was not satisfied with the cost of getting a building permit in Mumbai, which they said was high compared with the per capita income. But they were told that the per capita income of Mumbai, and not of the country, should be considered for this since the buildings are constructed in the city where the income is higher, said an official.
The WB officials were also told that permissions for electricity connections were now given online and connections were provided within 9 days.
