The Union government will likely come out with a system to rank ministries on facilitating ease of doing business by marking them on parameters such as single-window clearance of projects, time taken to clear files per department and the use of Digital India tools, among others, sources said.
These rankings, a senior government official said, are being prepared in extensive consultation with senior industrialists, industry bodies, trade and policy groups as well as representatives of startups and are likely to be announced shortly.
Apart from the number of single-window project clearances being facilitated by a ministry, the other parameters include the time taken for these approvals, the number of permits required to set up a new unit and the total percentage of budgetary allocation spent.
Factors such as number of physical files created, complaints raised and cleared per month, and industry interactions organised will also be considered in the rankings.
“The idea is to discourage creation of physical files for various obvious reasons. Government ministries at central level must accelerate the adoption of digital tools in their day-to-day work,” an official said.
The parameters would fall into two buckets. Apart from these “important” parameters, there are also a set of “desirable” factors to evaluate performance. These include ease of access to websites of ministry departments, application of Digital India apps within its programmes, and use of solar and other renewable sources to power the headquarters and other buildings.
“While priority items such as single-window clearance or number of interactions will be given more weightage, easy accessibility of website or use of renewable energy also represent aspect of improving facilities for businesses,” one of the senior officials said.
Central public sector enterprises were also ranked in a similar manner recently. Companies such as Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, and Shipping Corporation of India were among the best performing public sector units as per these rankings.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, National Research Development Corporation and Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd were among the worst performers.
Apart from these, every year, the Union government also ranks states on their performance on 180 reform initiatives across 45 business regulatory areas, including easy access to information, paying taxes, obtaining utility permits, contract enforcement, labour and construction permit enablers, single-window approval systems and land administration.
Earlier this month, in a contentious move, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change had said that it had decided to “incentivise states” by ranking them on the basis of “efficiency and timelines in grant of environmental clearances”.
The ministry had said in its order that the decision was taken following a meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary on November 13 last year, which raised the issue of action taken to enable “ease of doing business’’, especially in the context of “ranking of states based on the time taken in according clearances’’.
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Aashish AryanAashish Aryan is a Principal Correspondent With The Indian Express. He… read more
