New Delhi, May 14 (KNN) The 2017 edition of the much publicised annual scorecards of the states  in business reforms is out and all major states excluding Punjab has upgraded their score.

The drop in state level ranking of Punjab once considered to be the  hot bed of entrepreneurship with globally acclaimed clusters like Ludhiana is really dismal.

From a position of 12 with 91% marks in 2016, Punjab has dropped to 20th position with just 51% score, a real drop indeed.

This raises serious concerns about the industrial administration in the once breeding ground of MSME entrepreneurs and both the central and the state Government need detail introspection.

Talking to KNN India, Badish Jindal, President, Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association (FOPSIA) said, "It’s really shocking to see the decline.

It’s much about implementing ease of doing business reforms and Punjab has shown no interest in that."

He said for last one year the industry is in trouble as the government dropped the previous industrial policy and new policy is still in process which might take few more months.

Jindal said it’s really sad to see that where other governments are coming out to support the industry , here in Punjab the industry is never a priority sector for present or past governments.

It may be  mentioned here  that the state wide survey on improvement in business regulations was initiated by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2014, after the brouhaha on the drop in ranking of India in World bank Ease of Business rating.

The annual evaluation developed some competition among the states to provide easier regulatory environment to industry and may have resulted a 10 point up- ranking of India by the World bank last year.

The 2017 state level score card on business reform shows a trailblazing performance by Assam, which improved its score from 14% in 2016 to nearly 94% in 2017.

Whether the situation  at the ground level has really made such spectacular improvement only the local entrepreneurs can say.

Another lagging state was found to be the Government of the national Capital Territory. Delhi has dropped from 19th  to 23rd position between 2016 and 2017. However, the reasons are evident.

The interesting thing is about six states has got 100% marks and among them Haryana has achieved the pole position relegating the divided Andhra states to lower status.

Another significant case  is of  Bihar..It has improved its score from 75% in 2016 to 91% in 2017, still dropped by two ranks, such hot was the competition.

A significant observation in the latest  state level scorecard is there is a clear line of demarcation between the achiever and non achiever and the state level score drops from 90% for Bihar to 60% for Goa with all the bottom states clustering around.

What does it indicate? To the common man it may appear that some states, notably Kerala, with  the highest educated population, could not care less and happy with their status in regulatory reforms.

If so, then the entire exercise may have a bleak future. It will only create a group of achievers and a group of failed states, which surely is not the objective of an Union. (KNN/ DB)