In India, it is much easier to do business in smaller and younger states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, according to a state-wise ranking list compiled by The World Bank released on Monday.

Jharkhand, which was carved out as a new state in the early part of the millennium, ranked third with 63.09% followed by Chhattisgarh, which was also formed during the same time, with 62.45%. These two states came just after Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, which ranked first and second, with 71.14%, and 70.12%, respectively.

Maharashtra, India’s biggest industrialized state, and home to many engineering and automobile firms, fell far behind at eighth rank, and scored 49.43%. It was preceded by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha, according to the report.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said policymakers need to change their regulatory mindset asserting that role of state should be minimised and government monopoly must end wherever possible.

Speaking at the National Workshop on Citizen-Centric Governance, he said the economic reforms, which seek to promote easing of doing business, will continue as these are “never-ending processes and do not have a finishing line”.

Jaitley said policymakers in India still have a “regulatory mindset” which needs to change even as he spoke of the urgency for policing reforms to make police-citizen interaction more civilised.

“… the control temperament or the control freak temperament of the political system has still not been fully done away with and there is a legacy to it,” Jaitley said, adding that all actions of the government should be aimed at “providing a better quality of life to citizens and minimising the role of the government”.

ANKARA: Promising a rational tax regime and easier business environment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today asked Turkish industry leaders to invest in India including in smart cities, textiles, food processing and renewable business sectors.

In an interactive session with them on the sidelines of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, he said the government has made significant progress in improving ease of doing business in India and a lot more was being done in this regard.

"We have made significant progress on ease of doing business, although I would not say as yet that we have perfected it," Jaitley said.

Committing himself to rationalising the taxation regime, both in terms of direct and indirect taxes, he said a number of initiatives that offer significant investment opportunities have been announced for global investors including from Turkey.

In an attempt to encourage competition among states to formulate easier business rules, the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) is gearing up to release the ease of doing business ranking of states on 31 August.

DIPP on 8 June released a framework to assess and rank states in terms of ease of doing business.

Its key objectives include assessing the implementation of various factors enabling the ease of doing business in a state and carrying out a comparative study of various states on the status of implementation.

“We have sent queries to state governments seeking clarification where their response and our field surveys do not match. We hope to release the report on 31 August,” a DIPP official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Pitching for a better ranking on ease of doing business for India, government officials today apprised the World Bank about various reform measures taken in the past one year including relaxation in company laws.

A two member mission of the World Bank Group is on a two day-visit to India to collect data and information for Doing Business Report, 2016. The members are Nadine Abi-Chakra and Baria Nabil Daye.

India ranked 142 among 189 nations in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2015 report.

The government has made 45-odd changes in the Companies Act of 2013, through circulars, notifications or orders, ever since the provisions of the new company law came into effect on April 1 this year. Last week, the Union Cabinet cleared another 14 changes in the Act, paving the way for tabling amendments in the ongoing session of Parliament.

Over the last seven months, the bulk of the changes that have taken place pertain to provisions and rules in related-party transactions, corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend, easing rules for private companies, issue of consolidated financial statements, and the role of directors and key managerial personnel. Most of these changes were driven by calls from stakeholders -industry, auditors, consultants - to ease the environment to do business, while striking a balance for meeting a higher corporate governance threshold in the way business is conducted. Some of these changes were necessitated by avoidable drafting errors in the Act.

The time taken to start a business is the first factor that World Bankconsiders in its report on ease of doing business. India was at 158th position this year (2015) compared to 156th last year (2014). According to the latest report, it takes almost 30 days to incorporate a company in India. This is an increase of three days compared to last year's average time of incorporation (27 days).

The government is talking about reducing the average number of days to register a company from 27 to 1. However, according to professionals and experts who help businesses get registered, it is easier said than done.