Gujarat’s Dahod Tops NITI Aayog’s List of Aspirational Districts, Kupwara Worst Performer

New Delhi: Gujarat’s Dahod district topped the first Delta ranking released on Friday by the NITI Aayog that captures incremental improvements of aspirational districts on health, education and other development parameters.

Other districts that have shown marked improvement on five developmental parameters in the months of April and May 2018 are West Sikkim (Sikkim), Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu), Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh) and YSR Kadapa district (Andhra Pradesh).

Releasing the first Delta ranking (incremental progress) for aspirational districts, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said Kupwara (Jammu and Kashmir), Begusarai (Bihar), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Simdega (Jharkhand) and Khagadia (Bihar) were among the worst performing districts.

Transformation of Aspirational District’s programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi this year and is aimed at quickly and effectively transforming some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.

Kant said of 115 aspirational districts, only 108 participated in the first Delta ranking.

While three districts of West Bengal did not participate in the ranking, Odisha and Kerala sent their entries late and hence could not be included in the ranking exercise.

The ranking was based on self-reported data of districts between March 31, 2018, 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.

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

After several rounds of consultations with various stakeholders, 49 key performance indicators have been chosen to measure progress of the districts.

Districts are encouraged to first catch up with the best district within their state, and subsequently aspire to become one of the best in the country, by competing with, and learning from others in the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism.