Odisha strides ahead in implementation of ‘Ease of Doing Business’

Bhubaneswar, 19th March: After achieving 7th position in the ‘Ease of doing business Indices’ at national level, Odisha now strides ahead to be one among the first three states in this arena.

A high level review meeting to this effect was held today under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Parsad Padhi in secretariat conference hall today, wherein Principal Secretary Industry Sanjeeb Chopra presented the updates for discussion.

Reviewing the progress, Chief Secretary Padhi directed concerned departments to expedite the implementation of remaining reform agenda.  Time schedule was set for against compliance to each of the action points.

The compliance to reform agenda by the departments like Commercial tax, Energy, Labour & Employees State Insurance, Industries, Law, Revenue & Disaster Management, State Pollution Control Board, Water Resources, Housing & Urban Development were reviewed in the meeting. It was seen that in total around 70% compliance was achieved in implementation of the reform agenda. Some departments like Water Resources, Pollution Control Board of Forest & Environment dept, Industries and Commercial Tax have achieved more than 87% of success.

Available data shows, a total number of 340 reform points were suggested for making the process of doing business more facilitative and proactive. Out of these 30 points were found ‘not applicable’ for Odisha. So far, around 225 action points have been complied.  Chief Secretary directed the departments to expedite the implementation of remaining actionable points and ensure 100% compliance within the scheduled time frame. Many such points have been scheduled for compliance within 31st March.

It may be pertinent here to mention that recently one of the World Bank assessments has ranked Bhubaneswar as 3rd best city in India to do the Business. This has been also reflected in the latest mobile app of ‘Odisha New Opportunities’ launched by Industries department.  It was decided in the meeting that State updates would be uploaded regularly in the central web portal on ease of doing business for reflecting Odisha’s competitive position at national level.

Principal Secretary Energy Sri Rajesh Verma, Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management Dr. Mona Sharma, Principal Secretary Labour & ESI G. Srinivas, Principal Secretary Law Bibhu Prasad Routray, Secretary Housing & Urban Development Sri G. Mathivathnan, CMD GRIDCO Sri Hemant Sharma, Labour Commissioner Smt. Roopa Mishra along with other senior officers from IPICOL and Industries participated in the discussion.