Special category status has become a buzzword in Andhra Pradesh politics of late. Every political party and organisation has started demanding it with a strong belief that it would provide an investment climate in the state, bring in more industries due to incentives and tax rebates and increase the employment opportunities.
While the opposition parties have been agitating for it over the last four years, ruling Telugu Desam Party, too, has joined the bandwagon and started demanding it for the sake of appeasing people in the elections, though it had accepted the special financial package as an alternative two years ago.
It has become more of a political issue, rather than a practical proposition to lead to rapid industrialisation.
It was evident from the way the 11 states in the country having special category status faring badly in getting the rankings under Ease of Doing Business given by the Union ministry of commerce and industry.
According to the ministry report, the idea behind ranking states is to induce competition to attract investment and improve the business climate.
In addition, these rankings indicate that the states have the potential to attract business and undertake various reforms that are being undertaken by the Centre.
Surprisingly, all the north-eastern states except Assam continue to remain at the bottom of the ranking list, indicating that they are not business-friendly destinations.
So, the argument that more and more industries would come and generate more employment in the states with special category status has proved to be a myth.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been faring extremely well and topping the rankings, though they do not have any status.
