Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth to soon call meeting on ease of doing business

NEW DELHI: A meeting of senior government officials will be held soon to firm up steps for improving ease of doing business in the country, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth said today.

"I propose to convene a meeting shortly, may be in the next 10-12 days, on ease of doing business. How to improve this," he said here at the 'Services Conclave' organised by the Commerce Ministry and CII.

India has been ranked 142 among the 189 countries in the latest report of the World Bank, falling two places from last year's ranking.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry is taking steps in order to improve the ease of doing business.

In September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that India's ranking could be improved to the 50th position by making regulations easier among other steps.

On services sector, Seth said that there is a need to focus on standard issues of the sector to make it more competitive in the global market.

"Growth in services sector compliments growth in the manufacturing sector...there is a huge potential to be tapped in the sector. It contributes about 60 per cent in the GDP," he said.

He said the government would look into the recommendations made by the industry experts to enhance services exports.

"Standards and certification of services are important. We need a culture of standards...all this reform requires high level of coordination. We are trying to make this coordination more effective," he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher also stressed on the need for the industry to give special focus on quality of services.

"There is a huge basket of services which India can deliver," he said, adding "what held us back are reforms. We are not able to pluck the low hanging fruits".

In 2013-14, services exports stood at USD 151 billion.