Our Correspondent
Concerned over negative reports from World Bank, Prime Minister Narendra Modi toady asked all top officials of the Central Government and States’ Chief Secretaries to study the World Bank’s report on Ease of Doing Business and analyze the areas where there is a scope for improvement. He also asked for a report from all the concerned within a month and directed the Cabinet Secretary to review the same thereafter.
In rankings released by the World Bank on Oct. 25, India’s position in Doing Business 2017 list moved up by only one place to 130 among 190 countries. This comes as a dampener for the Narendra Modi government, which, two years ago, publicly announced an ambitious target to improve India’s rankings to within the top 50 by 2018.
Interacting through PRAGATI, Mr Modi said, the Union Budget presentation is being advanced by about a month to ensure speedier implementation of projects and schemes. He also asked the States to align their plans to take maximum advantage of this move. On the upcoming Sardar Patel Jayanti, the Prime Minister urged all Secretaries and Chief Secretaries to work towards making available at least one website of their departments in all officially recognized Indian languages.
Expressing concern over the large number of grievances of labourers and Employees Provident Fund beneficiaries, Mr Modi said, the government must be sensitive to labourers’ needs. He said, in a democracy, the labourers should not have to struggle to receive their legitimate dues. He asked the officials for introducing of a system to begin process of finalization of retirement benefits for all employees well in advance.
In case of an untimely death, Mr Modi said, the papers should be completed within a specified time, and officers should be made accountable for the same. On the progress of the National Agriculture Market initiative- e-NAM, the Prime Minister urged the remaining states to quickly make the required changes in the APMC Act, so that e-NAM could be enabled across the country. He also invited Chief Secretaries of States to give their suggestions on e-NAM.
Reviewing the progress of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the Prime Minister asked the Chief Secretaries to ensure that safe drinking water is made available to the residents of all 500 towns under AMRUT. He said, the Hindi word NAGAR can be defined as provisioning of Nal (Drinking Water), Gutter (Sanitation) and Rasta (Roads). He said AMRUT should focus on citizen-centric reforms.The Prime Minister also reviewed the progress of vital infrastructure projects in several states through PRAGATI.
| Country | Ranking |
|---|---|
| Russia | 40 |
| South Africa | 74 |
| China | 78 |
| Brazil | 123 |
| India | 130 |