Odisha eyes top slot in ease of doing business

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said more reforms would be ushered in the state so that it is ranked among the country’s top three on ease of doing business.

“I would like our state to be ranked amongst the top three states in the country with respect to ease of doing business. All concerned departments must learn from the good practices implemented by other states and expedite implementation of reforms,” he said at a review meeting here.

He has directed all concerned departments to implement pending reforms by December this year and complete the next phase of reforms by February, 2016.

He said he would review the progress every two months.

Odisha was ranked at the seventh position with 52.12 points in ease of doing business.

In January this year, the department of industrial policy and promotion had shared 98 action points for business reforms to enable ease of doing business.

Now there are 344 action points drafted for next phase of reforms.

“The state has performed relatively better in setting up business, allotment of land and obtaining construction permits, complying with environment procedure, tax procedures and carrying out inspections,” said a release from the Chief Minister’s Office.