Andhra Pradesh has been ranked as number one state in the 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking. The World Bank and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) prepared the list including all the states andunion territories (UTs).

Among the top three states, besides Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Haryana were on the second and third spot respectively. In the mentioned list, that released on Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh topped the chart with a score of 98.42% while Telangana slipped down to number 2, scoring 98.33%. Haryana, Jharkhand and Gujarat came third, fourth and fifth.

States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan were among the top performers.

The national capital was on the 23rd position while Maharashtra and Tamil nadu were on the 13th and 15th spot.

The commerce and industry ministry released the ranking on Tuesday. The ranking aims at triggering competition among states to attract investments and improve the business climate.

The Ease of Business rankings have become an annual affair with in which all states and Union Territories are included under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP).

"A large number of states have made significant progress in reforms suggested in BRAP 2017," it said.

The assessment under the BRAP 2017 is based on a combined score consisting of reform evidence score that is based on evidence uploaded by States/UTs and feedback score that is based on response garnered from the actual users of the services provided to the businesses. DIPP said 17 states have achieved a reform evidence score of more than 90 per cent and 15 have achieved a combined score of 90 per cent and more. "The states which have achieved 80 per cent or more reforms evidence score represent 84 per cent of the country's area, 90 per cent of the country's population and 79 per cent of India's GDP," it said.

Number of reform actions implemented under BRAP 2017 increased to 7,758 from 2,532 in 2015.