MSMEs Still Unaware from Benefits of Ease of Doing Business: NITI Aayog

NITI Aayog in its "Ease of Doing Business" survey report, released by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Industry and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman , found that enterprises are often unaware of initiatives given by the government for 'Ease of Doing Business'.

"For instance on single-window clearance: are enterprises even aware of this facility? We got surprising results," said NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya.

He said that even among start-ups -- which are set up in the last three years, only 20 percent of them said that they were aware of the existence of single-window facility.

According to the report, even among the experts, only 41 percent reported having knowledge of the existence of the facility.

"There is clearly a huge gap between what has been done and what enterprises know," Panagariya said.

"To actually take full advantage of ease of doing business that has been created, there is a need to disseminate information about what is there to be known for enterprises which are the ones doing business."

While releasing the report which covers more than 3,000 enterprises across India, Sitharaman said it may be the last but the "most important" contribution from Panagariya, who leaves the NITI Aayog on August 31 to return to his academic career in the US.

She said the report would give a complete and true picture of the business environment of the country.

The minister added that the ease of doing business was the priority of the government and is getting full attention.

Prasad said that the nation was making huge strides in the field of digital infrastructure and called for a separate index for measuring digital ecosystem of states.

The survey, which covers over 3,000 enterprises across India, makes an effort to assess ease of doing business from their perspective as opposed to the perspective of policy makers.

Panagriya said that while this report takes the entire country into account and tries to bring forward national trends on different issues, there will be a second report based on the survey which will focus on individual states.

NITI Aayog Monday launched the Ease of Doing Business report based on an Enterprise Survey of 3,500 manufacturing firms across Indian states and union territories. The survey has been conducted, along with the IDFC Institute, to assess the business regulations and enabling environment across India from firms’ perspective.

The Ease of Doing Business report was based on an Enterprise Survey of 3,500 manufacturing firms Survey comes in the backdrop of the fact that India needs to create an environment that fosters globally competitive firms, capable of driving and sustaining economic growth.