Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh (UP) has jumped to the second position in the ease of doing business (EoDB) annual rankings that Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal released in New Delhi on Saturday. “UP has jumped from the 12th position in Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2017-18 to the second position in BRAP 19. UP has left behind several leading states such as Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra etc in the EoDB annual rankings,” said a spokesman of the state government. UP is second only to Andhra Pradesh (AP).

UP has implemented 186 of the 187 reforms suggested by the Union government’s department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) under BRAP 19. “This year’s exercise was completely based on user feedback. Attaining the second rank indicates that entrepreneurs have been receiving the benefits of these reforms implemented by the UP government under the dynamic leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath,” the spokesman said.

“From May onwards, the state had also started to rank all its 75 districts in the EoDB exercise,” he added. Under state BRAP 20-21, UP implemented 170 out of 301 suggested reforms, he added. The reforms covered several aspects such as labour regulation, online single-window facility, access to information and transparency, land administration, construction permit, commercial disputes etc. Over 20 departments such as Invest UP (Udyog Bandhu), labour, commercial tax, power, stamp and registration, excise, food safety and drug administration, UP Pollution Control Board etc have been an integral part of the reforms, according to the spokesman.

UP’s feat is being attributed to the successful implementation of the Nivesh Mitra portal. In two years, Nivesh Mitra received 2,29,936 applications for No-Objection Certificates (NoCs) and 94% were disposed of, the spokesman said. Nivesh Mitra is a dedicated single-window system of the UP government. State industrial development minister Satish Mahana, UP chief secretary (CS) RK Tiwari, infrastructure, industrial development commissioner (IIDC) Alok Tandon and additional chief secretary (ACS) (infrastructure and industrial development) Alok Kumar have lauded the achievement.

“The CM has been emphasising on transparency and best practices in business-to-government (B2G) interactive procedures through the use of technology. Our government has been successful in improving EoDB by introducing various IT-driven modules and Nivesh Mitra is one such successful tool,” said Mahana. Tandon said: “EoDB shows that the Nivesh Mitra portal has become an integral part in bridging the gap between industrial demands and expectations from the state government.”

Kumar said, “A maximum approval of BRAP 19 reforms and higher user feedback satisfaction record on Nivesh Mitra portal have played a critical role in achieving this milestone. Initiatives such as a monthly ranking of all 75 districts on EoDB parametres shall further help in creating a conducive business environment in UP.” Neena Sharma, chief executive officer (CEO) of Invest UP, said the feat reflected Nivesh Mitra’s acceptance in the industry. The portal has received 18,120 grievances from entrepreneurs to date, of which 17,752, or 98%, have been resolved.

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