As the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion prepares itself for the job of ranking the States' in the ease of doing business in January 2018, the Centre has got in the process of its first public perception survey to evaluate the claims on reforms made by the states. The public perception of state reforms may be used as a critical input in the ranking of states in the ease of doing business. The States' ranking this year may be based on 372 points which include new areas such as hospitality, trade licenses, weights and measures and pharmacy shops. All States are said to have been given reasonable time to submit their inputs on steps taken to improve the ease of doing business in their jurisdiction. The Centre will then start its first public perception survey on what businesses feel about the reforms that state governments claim to have carried out and rank the states accordingly. Last year, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh topped the charts in the ease of doing business index for States published on October 31 by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). States were evaluated by the DIPP and World Bank on a 340-point action plan such as single window clearance, tax reforms, labor and environmental reforms, dispute resolution and construction permit. This year things may change considerably as the center may not base its assessment solely on what States say they have achieved. The center may solicit the views of businesses, ask them if they are satisfied with what the States have done and whether they agree with what is being claimed. The responses will be collected from the identified businesses mostly through questionnaires and in some cases through telephonic interviews and face-to-face interactions. Last year the States that had achieved 90 percent or more of the reforms also included Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Punjab.