RSTV: IN DEPTH- GOVERNANCE INDEX
Introduction:
On 25th December, the government released a good governance index to assess the state of governance in the country. States and Union Territories were divided into three groups. They were measured on 50 indicators in 10 sectors of governance. Tamil Nadu emerged on top of the Index among 18 big states in the country. In the north-east and hill category, Himachal Pradesh topped the ranking, Puducherry stood first among union territories
Good Governance Day:
- Good Governance Day is observed in India annually on the twenty-fifth day of December, the birth anniversary of former-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
- Good Governance Day was established in 2014 to honor Prime Minister Vajpayee by fostering awareness among the Indian people of accountability in government.
- In keeping with this principle, the Government of India has decreed Good Governance Day to be a working day for the government
- On 23 December 2014, the ninety-year old former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously) were announced as recipients of India’s highest civilian award for merit, the Bharat Ratna, by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.
- Following the announcement, the newly elected administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi established that the birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister would be henceforth commemorated annually in India as Good Governance Day.
The Good Governance Index:
- It is a uniform tool across States to assess the Status of Governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the State Government and UTs.
- The Minister said that good governance initiatives by the Government draw inspiration from former PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji.
- He added that good governance initiatives are being replicated not only by the states in India, but also by the other countries. He added that many regional conferences have been organized by the DARPG in different parts across India to replicate good governance practices.
- The purpose behind developing a comprehensive index, termed as Good Governance Index (GGI), is to create a tool which can be used uniformly across the state, and eventually districtlevel, to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by Central and State Governments including Union Territories (UTs).
- Another significant contribution of the GGI would be contributing in tracking the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at statelevel.
Objectives:
- The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs.
- Enable states and UTs to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result oriented approaches and administration.
- Various principles have been kept in mind while selecting the indicators, i.e. it should be easy to understand & calculate, citizen-centric & result driven, leading to improved results and applicable to all states and UTs, among others. Various consultation meetings were held with the stakeholders, including consultations with sector experts, ministries, states & UTs.
The GGI takes into consideration ten sectors:
- Agriculture and Allied Sectors
- Commerce & Industries
- Human Resource Development
- Public Health
- Public Infrastructure & Utilities,
- Economic Governance,
- Social Welfare & Development
- Judicial & Public Security
- Environment
- Citizen-Centric Governance.
These ten Governance Sectors are measured on total 50 indicators. Difference indicators are given different weightage under one Governance Sector to calculate the value. E.g. Under Agriculture & Allied Sector, there are 6 indicators with different weightage, namely: Growth rate of agriculture and allied sector (0.4), growth rate of food grains production (0.1), growth rate of horticulture produce (0.1), growth rate of milk production (0.1), growth rate of meat production (0.1) and crop insurance (0.2).
Categories:
The states and UTs are divided into three groups:
- Big States,
- North-East & Hill States and
The states and UTs are ranked on all indicators separately, at the same time composite ranking is also calculated for these states and UTs under their respective groups based upon these indicators.
Key Findings of the first GGI Report:
- Top performers among the big states: Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
- The bottom six states are Odisha, Bihar, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
- Among the North-East & Hill States: Top 3 states are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Tripura.
- The bottom 3 states are Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
- Pondicherry leads among the UTs followed closely by Chandigarh with Delhi bagging the third spot. Lakshadweep is at the bottom among the UTs.
- Sector-wise ranking: In the environment sector:The top three states are West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.The bottom 3 states are Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
- Agriculture and Allied Sectors: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan are at the top
- Commerce & Industries: Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are at the top
- Human Resource Development: Goa is at the top.
- Judicial and public security ranking: West Bengal is at the bottom two in the judicial and public security ranking. Tamil Nadu tops the chart here.
- Economic governance: Karnataka is at the top under the economic governance category.
- Health: Kerala is at the top in the public health sector.
Limitations:
- The limitations of the index are determined largely by the availability of data, which can be overcome with time as data becomes available from authentic and reliable government sources.
- While agreeing the importance of input and processbased indicators, the framework is also limited by its focus only on outcome/outputbased indicators.
- The purpose of selection of such indicators is to keep the focus on performance and achievements of the State Governments and also to limit the number of indicators for implementation purpose.
