BackGovt meets industry members to facilitate ease of doing business
The government has set an ambitious goal of improving India's ranking to among the top 50 in the next two years
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New Delhi: Top government officials held a meeting with industry representatives on Friday to improve the ease of doing business in the country.
India ranks 142 among 189 countries on that metric, according to the World Bank’s ease of doing business index.
The government has set an ambitious goal of improving India’s ranking to among the top 50 in the next two years. It is in this context that Friday’s meeting, chaired by cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth, was convened.
Bureaucrats from the ministry of commerce and industry, revenue, labour, law and corporate affairs were present at the meeting. Industry representatives included R.C. Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd; Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman, CII task force on infrastructure projects; Manoj Kohli, chairman, CII task force on ease of doing business and managing director of Bharti Enterprises Ltd; Ravi Uppal, managing director and group CEO, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director of Biocon Ltd; Nik Senapati, chairman, CII national committee on mining and managing director-India, Rio Tinto India Pvt. Ltd; Raj Biyani, managing director, Microsoft IT India; and Deep Kapuria, co-chairman, CII trade fairs council and chairman of Hi-Tech Gears Ltd.
“The interaction makes me optimistic that things are moving in the government. Everybody in the government seems aware of the prime minister’s promise of ease of doing business, Make in India. Issues ranging from skill development, tax laws and general issues of how to increase the competitiveness of manufacturing were discussed," said Bhargava.
Seth emphasized the need to bring states on board to meet the goal of creating a more business-friendly environment.
He said he will write to the chief secretaries of state governments to hold similar consultations with stakeholders to gauge the ground situation and facilitate ease of doing business, said a government official on condition of anonymity.
Speaking on the suggestions made, Mazumdar-Shaw said, “There are three key things which I put forward in the meeting. One that speed of doing business is as important as ease of doing business— compressing approval timelines is important to make projects viable. Second, there needs to be mechanisms for companies to recover the high cost of capital that makes us globally uncompetitive. And third, government needs to preferentially incentivize indigenous manufacturing vis-à-vis cheaper imports for Make in India to become a success."
“The government is committed to facilitate ease of doing business," the government said in a statement on Friday.
The commerce and industry ministry has taken several measures, such as reducing the time for registration of business to one day, single registration of all labour laws and reduction in number of taxes to improve ease of doing business in India.
In the meeting, the ministry reiterated its intent to streamline procedures through use of technology and bring in single window clearances across sectors.
The department of industrial policy and promotion has identified sectors and specific reforms that are urgently required to substantially improve India’s ranking in ease of doing business index of the World Bank. It has listed as many as 46 action points for different central government ministries and state governments for improving the business climate.
Chatterjee, who represented the infrastructure industry, said, “I noticed a tremendous positivity of approach and a desire in the top bureaucratic echelons to create a more industry and investment friendly climate. Speaking of infrastructure, the big investment in the sector has to come from the private sector. To revive PPP (public-private partnership) momentum we need three Rs—independent regulation, re-negotiation of contracts and re-setting of risk allocation between the government and the private sector. The industry, which perceived the budget announcement of setting up 3P India as an instrument for revitalizing PPP, is still awaiting its implementation."
PTI contributed to this story.
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