Chennai, March 18 (IANS): The central government will name and shame state governments that do not ease up the process of doing business, a top official said on Wednesday.

Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), ministry of commerce and industry, said the central government has identified 98 points of action to be taken by the state governments towards ease of doing business in India.

Kant addressed from New Delhi a session here via video conference on Entrepreneurship - Enabling Make In India, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"By May end, all states have to act on these 98 points," he said. "The states have to take action now."

"We will name and shame the states by ranking them and publishing it so that they become business friendly," he added.

According to him, the 98 points listed by the central government fall under domain of state governments like land and other things.

He said once the appropriate actions are taken on the 98 points, India will become an easy place to do business.

Kant appreciated Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for initiating several business friendly measures.

He assured the states of the central government's support on addressing the 98 action points listed.

Kant said the key challenge is to take India's economic growth to 9-10 percent per annual for several years to come.

"During the last nine months, the government has taken a series of measures to make India an easy place to do business in," Kant said.

According to him for the past 60 years, the mindset was of control at the central and at the state level, and the task ahead is to scrap as many controls as possible.

Kant said the foreign direct investment (FDI) will see record levels this fiscal as the inflows already are logging 36 percent growth till now, as compared to previous year's figures.

He said the central government is drafting a new foreign trade policy.

Kant said India is already a major centre for research and development (R&D) with nearly 850 multi-national companies having their research centres in the country, providing around 450,000 jobs.

According to Chandrajit Banerjee, CII director general, the next phase of reforms falls under the state government's arena and the trade association would work towards that.

He said the CII would set up a Centre of Entrepreneurship in south India to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and assist the entrepreneurs.