Is it the World Bank or the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) that played a central role in bringing out the report `Assessment of State implementation of business reports’ and the ranking of states?
The DIPP, a week before the release of the report, had attempted to distance itself from it by claiming it was mainly a World Bank project. The idea, as some officials admitted off-the-record, was to avoid criticism that could be heaped on the Centre by States (especially those ruled by non-BJP parties) that fare badly in the report.
However, when the report was released, it turned out that the international agency had just provided ‘technical assistance’ to KPMG (hired by the DIPP) to analyse the data collected by it.
To avoid further controversy, the DIPP has asked World Bank to drive the exercise on its own in the next three years and take ownership of the report, a DIPP official told BusinessLine .