Dahod district of Gujarat stands first in NITI Aayog's aspirational district ranking

New Delhi, June 30 (KNN) Dahod district of Gujarat is the most improved district among 108 aspirational districts as per the first delta ranking report released by NITI Aayog. It has been ranked first followed by West Sikkim (Sikkim), Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu), Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh).

The ranking is based on incremental (delta) change in the 49 performance indicators based on various data points from March 31 to May 31 2018, across five developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.

Kupwara district in Jammu & Kashmir which has been ranked 108 based on above parameters is the least improved district followed by Begusarai (Bihar) with rank 107.

Asifabad district of Telangana, which was ranked 100 in Baseline ranking released in March this year, has made significant improvements in past two months and stood at 15 in Delta ranking.

Dahod district of Gujarat improved 19.8 points to rank first in the Delta ranking (was Ranked 17 in Baseline ranking).

West Sikkim district in Sikkim stood second with 18.9 points, a huge improvement from being in the 30th position in Baseline ranking.

Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh also made significant strides by improving 14.7 points and ranked 6th position in Delta ranking from 45th position in Baseline ranking.

Launched by Prime Minister in January this year, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ program aims to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.

Releasing the first delta ranking of the Aspirational District, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, “The purpose of this ranking is to spur a sense of competition among the dynamic teams in the districts.”

Since these districts face many challenges including legacy, unexploited or weak resource base, deficit of manpower at different levels due to difficult living conditions etc, the ranking is also a tool to identify sectors and indicator specific challenges so that Team India, which is driving this program, can take immediate corrective measures, he added.

The present delta ranking is largely based on data filled by district teams. NITI Aayog has entered into partnership with Tata Trusts and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations (ID Insights) to assist the districts in enumerating improvements in key performance indicators through a household survey.

The result of the survey is expected in July and would be available with regular periodicity thereafter. This would be factored into the next delta ranking.