New Delhi: Karnataka was 9th and Gujarat 1st in the World Bank’s first ever ranking of States on the ease of doing business in India. BJP ruled the roost in the rankings.Gujarat implemented 71.14 per cent of the reforms, according to the assessment. Andhra Pradesh came second with a score of 70.12 per cent, Jharkhand third at 63.09 per cent, Chhattisgarh fourth with 62.45 per cent and Madhya Pradesh fifth with 62 per cent.

Chief Secretaries of States participating in the “Make in India” workshop inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi last December finalised this action plan on “Ease of Doing Business”. It was decided later to evaluate States to assess progress by June 2015.

States were assessed on the implementation, over a six-month period from January to June, of a 98-point reforms agenda.

The Union Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, the Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CII) and KPMG were involved in the exercise.

The rankings of States will be released annually.

“The rankings reflect the ease of doing business in these States by the small and medium enterprises rather than foreign investors,” said World Bank Country Director Onno Ruhl.

“It is expected that investments will begin to flow to States that make it easier to do business, seeing which the low-rank States could be encouraged to take up reforms,” said former CII president Sunil Munjal at the release of the report.

The focus of the study is on eight key areas: The setting up of a business, allotment of land and obtaining construction permit, complying with environment procedures, complying with labour regulations, obtaining infrastructure-related utilities, registering and complying with tax procedures, carrying out inspections and enforcing contracts. States made good progress in terms of tax reforms, the report stated.

Punjab emerged the best performer in the category ‘setting up a business’ and Maharashtra in ‘obtaining infrastructure-related utilities’. Madhya Pradesh topped ‘allotment of land and obtaining construction permit’ and Karnataka ‘registering and complying with tax procedures’. Gujarat was assessed as the best for ‘complying with environment procedures’. Jharkhand is the best in two categories: ‘carrying out inspections’ as well as ‘enforcing contracts’.

Heres how they ranked (top 10)