Days after Maharashtra failed to make it to the top 10 in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Rankings 2019, the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting and directed the department of the industry to prepare an action plan to improve various parameters and thereby achieve top ranking.
‘’Maharashtra is the largest recipient of foreign investment in the country. The investment flow should continue to grow. Ease of Doing Business should be made more effective for attracting more and more investors for the prosperity of the state. The Department of Industry should make the Ease of Doing Business process more efficient for this. Necessary steps should be taken for that,’’ Thackeray said at the meeting. Today’s meeting was important as the state can take some consolation from the fact that it has maintained its 13th position compared to the previous list.
Industry Department Officer told Free Press Journal, “Maharashtra could not figure in top 10 because of a couple of reasons. Beneficiary interaction and awareness with the parent department was lacking. There was inadequate usage of online systems for obtaining services. The existence of physical touchpoints by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and departments of energy and revenue resulted in the dissatisfaction of the users. Moreover, extensive time taken for providing approvals was another negative.’’ He said there was no centralised online grievance redressal mechanism available at the department level while the offline service delivery was still available in some departments like revenue, excise and urban development departments.
Further, the officer said there was inadequate use of social media and outreach tools to percolate knowledge of reform implementation to the investor. In addition, there was insufficient capacity building exercise at the local level by various departments.
‘’The Industries Department will further step up efforts to coordinate, monitor and follow-up for 100% compliances Adequate attention will be on the respective departments, which are the actual touchpoints, to improve perception and system. The district-level offices for service delivery and information dissemination will be strengthened by capacity building,’’ said the officer.
