The assessment of States/Union Territories (UTs) under the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) 2020, the 5th edition of the BRAP exercise, was announced by Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Ministry of Finance (MoF), and Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA) on June 30, 2022, in New Delhi, Delhi.
Aim: To promote investor confidence, develop a business-friendly environment, and improve the ease of doing business across India by creating a healthy competitive aspect through a system of assessing states based on their performance in implementing BRAP.
Since 2014, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), MoF, has been assessing States/UTs based on their performance in implementing prescribed reforms in the BRAP exercise.
- Assessments of States/UTs have so far been made for the years 2015, 2016, 2017–18, and 2019.
Other Dignitaries
The BRAP 2020 assessment was announced in the presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoCI); Ministry of Consumer Affairs; Ministry of Food & Public Distribution & Ministry of Textiles; Anurag Jain, Secretary (DPIIT), MoCI; and senior government officials from the States/UTs.
Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) 2020
i. The BRAP 2020 covers 301 reform points spanning 15 business regulation areas such as Access to Information, Single Window System, Labour, Environment, Land Administration & Transfer of Land and Property, Utility Permits, and others.
- To further strengthen the reform process, 118 more reforms were also included.
ii.To broaden the scope of the reform agenda, sectoral reforms with 72 action points were introduced for the first time in the following 9 sectors: Trade License, Healthcare, Legal Metrology, Cinema Halls, Hospitality, Fire No Objection Certificate(NOC), Telecom, Movie Shooting, and Tourism.
Assessment of States/UTs Under BRAP 2020
In order to recognise and identify the outstanding reform measures adopted by the States/UTs to improve the business ecosystem, the DPIIT assessed and sorted States/UTs into broad category-wise segmentation.
- As compared to the conventional practice of announcing ranks, the MoCI has changed the system of ranking States/UTs in BRAP 2020 to be category-based, namely:
- Top Achievers,
- Achievers,
- Aspirers, and
- Emerging Business Ecosystems.
Objective: The assessment of the States/UTs is not intended to establish a hierarchy among them, but rather to establish an environment that enables for the exchange of knowledge among the States/UTs, which would further result in the spread of effective practises across India.
Significance: The assessment fully considers the feedback from actual users/respondents at the ground level, who contributed their perspectives about the effective implementation of reforms.
The 7 States/UTs under the Top Achievers category in BRAP 2020:
| S.No | States/UTs |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh |
| 2 | Gujarat |
| 3 | Haryana |
| 4 | Karnataka |
| 5 | Punjab |
| 6 | Tamil Nadu |
| 7 | Telangana |
The 6 States/UTs under the Achievers category in BRAP 2020:
| S.No | States/UTs |
| 1 | Himachal Pradesh |
| 2 | Madhya Pradesh |
| 3 | Maharashtra |
| 4 | Odisha |
| 5 | Uttarakhand |
| 6 | Uttar Pradesh |
The 7 States under the Aspirers category in BRAP 2020:
| S.No | States/UTs |
| 1 | Assam |
| 2 | Chhattisgarh |
| 3 | Goa |
| 4 | Jharkhand |
| 5 | Kerala |
| 6 | Rajasthan |
| 7 | West Bengal |
The 11 States/UTs under the Emerging Business Ecosystems category in BRAP 2020:
| S.No | States/UTs |
| 1 | Andaman & Nicobar |
| 2 | Bihar |
| 3 | Chandigarh |
| 4 | Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli |
| 5 | Delhi |
| 6 | Jammu & Kashmir |
| 7 | Manipur |
| 8 | Meghalaya |
| 9 | Nagaland |
| 10 | Puducherry |
| 11 | Tripura |
Note: Feedback could not be obtained for Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep and Ladakh due to insufficient User Data
Other Facts:
i. The second band of states with 80-90% score are Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh while the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Bihar, and all the UTs scored less than 50%.
ii. Furthermore, 30 States/UTs have developed their state single window clearance systems, while six are developing them.
iii. 14 States have adopted the national single window.
iv.20 States/UTS have developed a central inspection system.
About Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoCI):
Union Minister – Piyush Goyal (Rajya Sabha – Maharashtra)
Minister of State (MoS) – Anupriya Singh Patel (Mirzapur Constituency, Uttar Pradesh); Som Parkash (Hoshiarpur Constituency, Punjab)
