Pahle India Foundation Recommends Sector-based Reforms for Ensuring Better Ease of Doing Business in Karnataka

Report suggests ways of improving Ease of Doing Business in Karnataka which comes at a very pertinent time as World Bank includes Bengaluru among 4 cities for calculating EoDB ranking

• Findings to help promote Government's vision to boost MSME sector and foster job creation in State
• Policy think tank shares report with high-ranking officials of the Karnataka government, which proposes sectoral value-chain based approach to reforms
• Recommendations include streamlining of excise laws to ensure promotion of key sectors
• Calls for measures to improve business in 3 sectors - Sugar, Alco-bev and Tourism

BANGALORE, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading policy think-tank Pahle India Foundation (PIF) has recommended extensive policy reforms for Karnataka's key industry sectors for improving ease of doing business for greater impact on the state's GDP. The recommendations come at a very opportune time as the World Bank has included Bengaluru as the fourth city for working out India's Rank in the Ease of Doing Business Index. 

In a closed-door meeting held with state government officials and industry representatives, PIF urged the Karnataka government to carry out certain reforms, particularly in the excise rules to facilitate ease of doing business in the State.

PIF has recently conducted a study titled 'An Integrated Value Chain Approach to Ease of Doing Business: A Case Study of Sugar, Alco-Bev, and Tourism' in which it suggests the state governments should adopt a sectoral value chain-based approach to reforms for meaningful impact on their respective GDPs. The think tank also makes crucial policy recommendations for these three key sectors of Karnataka. All the three sectors have important forward and backward linkages - while Sugar is an input sector for Alco-bev, Tourism is the output sector. The three industries together contribute significantly to state's revenues and employment numbers.

"In the report we have shown the inter-linkages between Sugar, Alco-bev and Tourism sectors and have established that even a small positive change in policy can have a domino effect  on the entire value chain across all the three sectors with direct value addition to the employment and GSDP," says Ms Nirupama Soundararajan, Senior Fellow & Head of Research at Pahle India Foundation and one of the co-authors of the report.

Commenting on the impact that the findings have so far created in other States Ms Soundararajan further elaborated that, "Maharashtra has already implemented 35 reforms in the last three months based on the recommendations of this report. Uttar Pradesh has recommended ten of our recommendations within a month of the roundtable in their Excise Policy for 2020-21. We are confident that the Karnataka government will also give our recommendations due consideration." 

This study along with all its key recommendations on Karnataka specific reforms were shared by Pahle India Foundation (PIF) with top officials of the Karnataka government during the meeting with government officials and industry stakeholders.

Mr. Venkat Sai, Assistant Commissioner of Excise, who was present in the meeting welcomed this extensive discussion session and encouraged more such discussions with different industry stakeholders. He further pledged help to all stakeholders in case they needed any further assistance.

Mr. Amit Roy, Thinktanc, Partner, further elaborated about the problems faced by the Alco-bev industry in Karnataka. He said, "The Alco -bev industry needs urgent policy support for uplifting it like other industries in the state because it is the biggest revenue contributor to the exchequer. It is also important to sensitise law enforcement officials and Police about their approach towards the industry and ensure changes in the State's policy to address the deterrents to improvement in ease-of-doing business for the sector."

Please find the report link here: http://pahleindia.org/pdf/publication/Sectoral_Approach_to_Ease_of_Doing_Business.pdf

About Pahle India Foundation:

Pahle India Foundation (PIF) is an FCRA certified, not for profit policy think tank, established in June 2013 by Dr. Rajiv Kumar as a Section 8 company. PIF's motto is 'Facilitating Policy Change.' The motto guides all our activities. At PIF, we undertake research and disseminate its findings to contribute to the necessary paradigm shift in development thinking and practices in India. PIF is committed to enriching the public discourse and also to influence policy formulation that will help India successfully complete its triple transition in economic, political and social fields.

Our aim is to emerge as a credible, trustworthy and neutral bridge between economic agents like firms, farmers and professionals on the one hand and policy makers on the other and to contribute to bringing the three principle stakeholders viz government, industry and academia on the same page and pulling in the same direction - a key condition for ensuring India's success in global markets. PIF currently has an analytically strong team of dedicated researchers who are self-motivated. PIF's highly qualified team specialises in analyzing India's political economy and its engagement across verticals that are relatively underworked areas that will permit PIF to create a niche for itself in the research and think tank space in the country.   

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