New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS): The development of an industrial park rating system would help increase industry competitiveness and boost the manufacturing sector in the country, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.

Releasing a report here on the industrial park rating system prepared by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Prabhu said such a system would be a useful tool for policy makers and investors available "at the click of a button".

"To ensure that India moves into the top 50 countries in Ease of Doing Business, the Ministry has undertaken the exercise of studying infrastructure across states and in over 3,300 industrial clusters, in order to assess quality of infrastructure in industrial parks in the country," he said.

The Minister said the Commerce Ministry is developing the system to assess industrial parks in the country based on four criteria -- internal and external infrastructure, environment and safety management, as well as business services and facilities.

A Commerce Ministry statement said that last year the DIPP had launched a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas and clusters across the country -- the Industrial Information System (IIS).

"The portal serves as a one-stop solution to the free and easy accessibility of all industrial information including availability of raw material -- agriculture, horticulture, minerals, natural resources -- distance from key logistic nodes, layers of terrain and urban infrastructure," it said.

"Over the last one year, state governments and industrial development corporations have actively used the portal and nominated over 200 parks for their assessment along the above parameters," it added.