New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS): The bifurcated states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the new joint top-ranked states this year in ease of doing business, says a report prepared by the Centre in collaboration with the World Bank and released on Monday.

The Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms, 2016, based on the ranking by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, tracks the level of implementation of norms by state governments making it easier to do business in.

"This is the second year of the report and the states have really been competing in implementing reforms," Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while releasing the report here.

"Telangana was at 13 last year, Haryana (at 6 this year) was ranked 14 and Uttarakhand was at 23 (at 9 this year)," she said to illustrate the competition among states.

Haryana, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra are the other states among the top 10 this year.