The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh seems to getting into overdrive on reforms. After dispensing with rigid and archaic labor laws, the country’s largest state is trying to ensure the smooth resumption and functioning of business units.

The new focus is on the ease of doing business at district levels. Consequently, district magistrates have been directed to ensure the implementation of ease of doing business reforms.

The 75 districts in the state will be ranked every month on the basis of percentage points earned on three parameters: district-wise time-bound disposal of applications received on the single-window portal, Nivesh Mitra, for getting approvals or licences by entrepreneurs; ‘satisfactory’ feedback of Nivesh Mitra user; and timely grievance redress status of the district.

The district magistrates, who chair the district-level Udyog Bandhu meetings, have been provided with user ID and passwords for the Nivesh Mitra portal to monitor the applications and their disposals.

UP Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana is hopeful that the district-level ease of doing business ranking would help entrepreneurs' facilitation at the grass-roots level.

"The state government is gearing up to transform the current challenges into opportunities of bringing in reforms for inclusive development. It is crucial that these reforms are implemented and visible on ground at all levels of governance, including in the districts," he said.

Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Alok Tandon said that this step would encourage the spirit of business competitiveness among the districts, which shall further act as a catalyst in improving the business ranking for the state.

Principal Secretary, Infrastructure and Industrial Development Alok Kumar said, "Along with other initiatives, such as creation of new investment promotion and facilitation agency, appropriate policy interventions and timely implementation of ease of doing business reforms at the state level, it is imperative to ensure efficient execution of reforms at the district level to create a conducive environment for industries and investors."

He said that the ranking of the districts has been conceptualized in two broad categories—the districts that receive over 2,000 applications on Nivesh Mitra seeking clearances and others.

In February 2020, 17 districts received more than 2,000 applications on Nivesh Mitra, according to government data. These were Bulandshahr, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Agra, Saharanpur, Mathura, Bareilly, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Hapur, Kanpur and Moradabad..