Gujarat took the top honours in a list that ranked states on the ease of doing business. The government on Monday released the results of the ranking through a report on ‘Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms’.

Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh feature in the top five in the report compiled by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion with technical assistance from the World Bank, consultancy firm KPMG, and CII and FICCI. Interestingly, of the five top States, four are ruled by the BJP, and one (Andhra Pradesh) by the Telugu Desam Party, an ally.

“The assessment, which is the first of its kind, has been conducted to take stock of reforms implemented by States in the period January 1 to June 30, 2015, based on the 98-point action plan for business reforms agreed between the DIPP and States last December,” Additional Secretary Shatrughna Singh said releasing the report on Monday.

The report would give potential investors an idea of the environment prevailing in different States and is also aimed at helping the states identify areas they need to improve in.

The exercise is part of the Centre’s efforts to improve the country’s ranking in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report, where it was placed a poor 142 among 189 countries in 2015.

“These rankings were based on States’ performance in the identified areas only over six months,” pointed out Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank. Next year, when the rankings would be based on a full year’s performance, they may change, he added.

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