Kerala has become the 8th state in the country to successfully undertake Ease of Doing Business reform stipulated by the Finance Ministry. With this, the state has now become eligible to mobilise additional financial resources of two thousand 373 crore rupees through Open Market Borrowings.<br />'' <br />''In addition to Kerala, seven other states namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have already completed this reform. On completion of reforms facilitating ease of doing business, these eight states have been granted additional borrowing permission of 23 thousand 149 crore rupees.<br />'' <br />''In view of the resource requirement to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre had in May last year enhanced the borrowing limit of the states by two per cent of their Gross State Domestic Product. Half of this special dispensation was linked to undertaking citizen-centric reforms by the states which include citizen-centric reforms of implementation of One Nation, One Ration Card System, Ease of Doing Business reform, Urban Local body reforms and reforms in power sector.<br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">So far 10 states have implemented the One Nation, One Ration Card System, eight states have done Ease of Doing Business reforms, and four states have done local body reforms. Total additional borrowing permission issued so far to the states who have done the refoms stands at ­­56 thousand 526 crore rupees.</span><br />