Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 27
Kiphire district, unlike the first, was ranked among the least 5 performers in NITI Aayog’s Second Delta ranking for the ‘Aspirational Districts’ in India.
The Survey titled, ‘Aspirational Districts Programme – Deep Five - 2nd Delta Ranking & Insights from Household Survey’ was released by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITIAayog on December 27.
The district was ranked 107 among 111 relatively least developed districts of the country dubbed by NITI Aayog as ‘Aspirational Districts’. It is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s launching of ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ in January with an “aim to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts in the country.”
The second ranking measured the incremental progress made by them between June 1, 2018 and October 31, 2018, across six developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure, NITI Aayog stated in an official release via PIB Delhi.
The Surveys were carried out in all Aspirational Districts during the month of June 2018 covering more than 1, 00,000 households. These surveys were used to validate critical data-points and provide inputs for nine further data-points for which district-level data is not readily available at regular intervals, it said.
The ranking factors in validated data from Household Surveys conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners, namely, TATA Trusts and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (IDInsight), it added.
Jharkhand's Pakur district was ranked the worst while Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar the best among the nation's 111 backward districts.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, the "Transformation of Aspirational Districts" programme aims to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
In the most improved category, the top five were: 1 – Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu; 2 - Nuapada, Odisha; 3-Siddharthnagar; Uttar Pradesh; 4 – Aurangabad, Bihar; and 5- Koraput, Odisha.
In the least improved category, the other bottom five districts were: 107 – Kiphire, Nagaland; 108 – Giridih, Jharkhand; 109 – Chatra, Jharkhand; 110- Hailakandi, Assam; and 111 - Pakur, Jharkhand.
The five fastest movers were: Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir (108 to 7); Ranchi, Jharkhand (106-10); Siddharthnagar, Uttar Pradesh (103-3); Jamui, Bihar (99 to 9); and Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh (82 to 25).
Ups and downs: Kiphire’s Performance
Kiphire’s performances have been fluctuating in the three rankings of ‘Aspirational Districts’ released by NITI Aayog so far.
In March baseline ranking of 101 ‘Aspirational Districts by NITI Aayog, Kiphire was ranked among the bottom 3 – 98th out of 101 districts.
However, in the next ranking released in June (first delta ranking), the district showed a drastic improvement and was ranked among the top 30. With an overall 8.3 ‘delta scores,’ it was ranked at 26th position – a jump of over 70 slots from 98 in March.
In the latest ranking, however, it is ranked 107 out of 11 districts, and ranked top five among the ‘Least Improved.’ The district scored well in education, Basic Infrastructure and Health and Nutrition, it suffered in Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development.
The Second Delta Ranking did not release the specific data on all parameters, however, a summary of top five and bottom informed that Kiphire scored the least in the Basic Infrastructure and was ranked 107.
Whether the district’s performance suffered due to inclement monsoon in the intervening period between (June–October), can be ascertain only from future rankings.
Releasing the ranking, NITI Aayog CEO said, “We have constantly endeavoured to ensure transparent, real-time measurement of qualitative development in Aspirational Districts through the use of third-party validated data. This will strengthen the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism on the foundations of evidence-based policy making.”
