eGovWatch: Centre asks states to adopt digitisation to improve ease of doing biz

Emphasising on the need for business process re-engineering and complete digitisation, the Centre today asked states to adopt best practices of other states to improve ease of doing business and boost manufacturing sector.

Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Amitabh Kant said the only way for India to move forward at higher growth rates is that states should compete with each other.

He said state governments should devise effective mechanism so that an entrepreneur gets faster approvals and clearances for manufacturing units and projects.

“The only way out is filing of only one single form which goes to different departments. It should be totally digital and you (entrepreneur) pay at one place.

“You (state governments) need somebody to put it (applications) all together, digitise, put it online and ensure that it goes to all agencies at one shot and this requires business process re-engineering and a complete digitisation,” he said at a Ficci function.

Kant was addressing officials of different states and industry representatives on a seminar on ‘Digitisation of clearances for setting up projects’.

Kant said several states including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are following best practices to improve ease of doing business which other states should adopt and implement.

“India must come within the first 50 from 134th (in the global ranking to ease of doing business). It is a challenge but it is not difficult. If states make up their mind to crack this, it will deliver in next one month. All you need is to sit and look at some good practices in some countries across the world and states,” he added.

“Unless and until we do not get this ease of doing business right, the bigger and the more radical reform that we are talking of, will falter very badly,” the secretary said.

Citing example of doing business in Mumbai, he said an application goes to 26 different departments and they take 186 days to give clearances while in other countries it takes 1-10 10 days.

According to a World Bank report, India has slipped three positions to 134th spot in the latest ‘ease of doing business’ list, which is topped by Singapore.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Swarup, Additional Secretary, Project Monitoring Group in the Cabinet Secretariat said that by March 2015, almost every application both with regard to clearances and approvals was expected to be online.

“By March 31, 2015, we should have almost all of these processes with time lines and digitised. What has already happened is in case of 20 such processes, (where) they have been digitised,” Swarup said.