NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the occasion of the Good Governance Day on Saturday launched the Good Governance Index (GGI) under which Gujarat topped the list of composite ranking followed by Maharashtra and Goa while Uttar Pradesh showed an incremental growth of 8.9 per cent in the indicators.
As many as 20 states have improved their composite GGI scores in 2021, according to the index. Gujarat topped the composite ranking in the 58 indicator index followed by Maharashtra and Goa. Uttar Pradesh has registered an 8.9 per cent improvement in the GGI indicators in the period 2019 to 2021 while Jammu and Kashmir registered an improvement of 3.7 per cent in the same period, it said.
Delhi has topped the union territories category composite ranking. Shah released the GGI 2021 prepared by the Department of Administration Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). On this occasion, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said the GGI would help assess the status of governance in states and union territories.
The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and union territories, enable them to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result-oriented approaches and administration. December 25 is observed as the Good Governance Day in commemoration of the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
As per the GGI-2021, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Goa topped the composite rank score covering 10 sectors. While Gujarat registered a 12.3 per cent increase, Goa registered a 24.7 per cent increase over GGI 2019 indicators. Gujarat has performed strongly in economic governance, human resource development, public infrastructure and utilities, social welfare and development, judiciary, and public safety while Maharashtra scored in agriculture and allied sector, human resource development, public infrastructure and utilities, social welfare and development. Goa performed well in agriculture and allied sector, commerce and industry, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, social welfare and development, and environment.
Among the sectors, Uttar Pradesh secured top position in the commerce and industry sector and has also shown an increase in social welfare and development and judiciary and public safety. It also performed in citizen-centric governance including public grievance redressal.
The GGI 2021 framework covered 10 sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors are agriculture and allied services, commerce and industries, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, social welfare and development, judicial and public security, environment and citizen-centric governance.
The GGI 2020-21 categorises states and union territories into four categories, – other states – Group A; other states – group B; North-East and hill states and union territories.
According to the GGI 2021, Jharkhand showed incremental growth of 12.6 per cent over GGI 2019 performance. It has performed strongly in seven of the 10 sectors. Rajasthan showed incremental growth of 1.7 per cent over the GGI 2019 performance. It has topped the other states (Group B) category in the judiciary and public safety, environment and citizen-centric governance.
In the Northeast and Hill States category, Mizoram, and Jammu and Kashmir have registered an overall increase of 10.4 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively over GGI 2019. Mizoram has performed strongly in commerce and industry, human resource development, public health and economic governance. Jammu and Kashmir has performed strongly in the commerce and industry sector and has improved its scores in the agriculture and allied sector, public infrastructure and utilities and judiciary and public safety sectors.
The GGI 2021 said in the union territories category, Delhi tops the composite rank registering a 14 per cent increase over the GGI 2019 indicators. Delhi has performed strongly in agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industry, public infrastructure and utilities and social welfare and development.
The GGI 2021 said 20 states have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 index scores. The sector-wise scores attained by the states and union territories indicates that strong performance in one or the other sector. Analysis of scoring also suggests that there is a very marginal difference among the states in their composite governance scores. This indicates that overall governance in the states of India is moving in the positive direction.
(Manas Dasgupta)