Government releases Good Governance Index - TN tops - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Government releases Good Governance Index - TN tops

Puducherry gets the first position among the union territories, Himachal Pradesh ranked first in the north-east and hill category.

Tamil Nadu has bagged the top position in the composite ranking for good governance index (GGI), followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to data provided by the Personnel Ministry.
Chhattisgarh has got the fourth position, followed by Andhra Pradesh (fifth), Gujarat (sixth), Haryana (seventh) and Kerala at the eight rank, it said.
Madhya Pradesh is at the ninth rank, West Bengal at the tenth position, followed by Telangana (11th), Rajasthan (12th), Punjab (13th), Orissa (14th), Bihar (15th), Goa (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Jharkhand at eighteen position in the big states category.
The states and union territories have been divided into three groups — big states, north-east and hill states, and union territories — for the rankings based on certain indicators separately.
In the north-east and hill category, Himachal Pradesh has topped the ranking followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura, Mizoram, Sikkim, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir (now divided into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh), Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
Among the union territories, Puducherry has got the first position, followed by Chandigarh, Delhi, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep.
“At present there is no uniform index to objectively assess the state of good governance in the states. The good governance index attempts to create a tool which can be used to assess the states of governance and impact of various interventions taken by the state governments and the UTs,” the Personnel Ministry has said.
It has also given sector-wise rankings.
Under the agriculture and allied sector, Madhya Pradesh has got first position followed by Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the big states category. Mizoram has got the first position in north-east and hill states category and Daman and Diu has bagged the top slot in the UT category for the sector.
In the commerce and industries sector, Jharkhand has got the first position in big states category, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Among the north-east and hill states, Uttarakhand has achieved the top rank, whereas Delhi is at the first rank in the union territories category.
Goa has got the first rank among big states for human resource development sector. Himachal Pradesh has got the first position among the north-east and hill states and Pondicherry is at the first place among the UTs for this sector.
In the public health sector ranking, Kerala is at the top position followed by Tamil Nadu and Goa among the big states.
Manipur and Pondicherry have got the first position in the north-east and hill states, and UTs category for this sector.
Tamil Nadu has been ranked first in the public infrastructure and utilities sector, followed by Gujarat and Punjab among the big states.
Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have got the top slot in north-east and hill states, and UTs category for this sector.
Under the economic governance sector, Karnataka has got the first position followed by Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu among the big states.
Uttarakhand has got the top rank in north-east and hill states category. Delhi has got the first position in the union territories category for the sector.
Chhattisgarh has got the first position in social welfare and development sector ranking. Meghalaya has topped the slot for the north east and hill states. Daman and Diu is at the first position in the UTs category for the sector.
For the judicial and public security sector, Tamil Nadu has got the first position followed by Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Bihar.
Himachal Pradesh is at the first position among the north east and hill states, and Pondicherry has got the top slot among the UTs, under the judicial and public security sector ranking.
Under the environment sector, West Bengal has got the first position followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu among the big states. Jammu and Kashmir is at the first place among the north-east and hill states, and Chandigarh in the union territories category for the ranking under the environment sector.
“The tenth sector, i.e. citizen centric governance has not been included for scoring and ranking purpose as at present only one indicator is identified as part of the sector,” the Personnel Ministry said.
Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh had on Wednesday launched the GGI to assess the state of governance in the country.
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.


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Government releases Good Governance Index - TN tops

India drops 43 places on the World Giving Index 2018 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India drops 43 places on the World Giving Index 2018.

When it comes to donating money, volunteering time and helping a stranger among 146 countries, India ranks at 124 in 2018 as opposed to its position of 81 in 2017.

The CAF World Giving Index 2018 finds that when it comes to donating money, volunteering time and helping a stranger among 146 countries, India ranks at 124 in 2018 as opposed to its position of 81 in 2017. However, if we look at the absolute numbers rather than giving as a percentage of the population, the report indicates that India ranks number 1 donating and volunteering and number 2 in helping a stranger. “There has been a dip in the number of Indians giving money from 265 million in the 2017 index to 191 million in 2018 Index; as far as volunteering goes 256 millions volunteered according to the 2017 Index while 138 million is the figure noted according to 2018 Index; and even when it comes to helping strangers, from 340 million reporting this in the 2017 Index, the number is at 290 million in 2018,” says Meenakshi Batra, chief executive officer, CAF India.
The ninth edition of Giving Index includes data from 146 countries collected throughout 2017 and indicates that global giving in terms of donating money has increased marginally amongst those from developed nations (from 40% to 42%), but has declined in developing countries (from 25% to 24%). The report also indicates that people in the older age groups who have historically been inclined to donate are not on the forefront any more.
As far as the global list goes, Indonesia debuts as number one, one up from last year. even though Indonesia’s three individual giving scores remain largely unchanged. Myanmar which held the top slot for four years in a row till 2017, is now down to the ninth place. Two countries which have made a debut in the top 20 ranking list include Haiti and Singapore. The report attributes Singapore’s success to a number of schemes that have been introduced in the country to increase volunteering recently. This year, significantly more people across the globe reported helping a stranger and volunteering their time and fewer people reported donating money to a charity, the second year this particular measure has declined.
“Over the last few years, the trend in giving has been upward in India hence this drop in ranking is surprising. In absolute numbers, more Indians are giving, and volunteering time than anywhere else in the world but perhaps other nations are just improving faster than us on the three parameters of the report when it comes to percentage of people giving or helping in the entire country. Also, we have to remember that a large part of giving in India still remains unstructured like feeding people, giving alms or donating at religious institutions,” says Batra, CEO of CAF India.
Batra also feels that “withdrawal of 35AC (100% exception on tax) from giving activities from FY17-18 onwards by the Government of India, could be another reason that has contributed to the drop in ranking.” Batra believes the way ahead is to focus more energy on awareness campaigns, make the giving environment more enabling for donors and incentivise giving. “It is heartening to see Prime Minister Modi taking active interest in volunteering and just last week asking for more people to take such activities seriously. This will surely help like it did in Singapore.”
Deval Sanghavi, co-founder, Dasra, a not-for-profit working with philanthropists, is surprised at the drop in ranking for India. “In the groups that Dasra works with including Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNI) and HNIs, giving has seen improvement in India. Even in the face of reducing foreign funds, India is seeing an unprecedented investment in sustainable development solutions that are community-designed and implemented; aimed at scalable solutions that engage government bodies from the start,” he says.
More importantly, givers are increasingly eager to engage in philanthropy with their time and experience as well, approaching it as another venture rather than traditional charity. “Given, these trends, we think the future is promising, with more giving going towards, structured and long term philanthropy,” he adds.
The CEO of Give India, Atul Satija, describes his non profit as India’s most trustworthy giving platform, says the past year has been a good one. “The overall participation in civic engagement has gone up as have the number of donors on our platform. We are also finding that young people in the country are keen to volunteer. In fact, Indian in their early 20s and those above 40 are willing to donate more for emotional causes like sponsoring a child etc, but those in their 30s, the millennials, are looking to solve bigger problems like climate change.”
Satija believes that to improve giving across age groups in India, what is needed is more investment in technology that will push to make hyper local activities like volunteering easier and also building narratives around the work of non profits and donors around the year. (Source: Livemint)


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India drops 43 places on the World Giving Index 2018.

India’s ranking goes up in childhood index - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

India’s ranking goes up in childhood index.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Ranked at 116 last year, the improvement in India’s overall score by 14 points from 754 to 768 on a scale of 1000
• The study however, puts India in the category of countries characterised by poverty and discrimination against girls.
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• On the child marriage issue the Index shows that adolescents currently married or in union (girls aged 15-19) was 15.2%
India finds space at 113 in Save the Children’s "End of Childhood Index 2018” which ranked 175 countries this year against indicators to determine the quality of childhood children have access to. Ranked at 116 last year, the improvement in India’s overall score by 14 points from 754 to 768 on a scale of 1000, is being attributed to reduced rate of child marriage. The study however, puts India in the category of countries characterised by poverty and discrimination against girls.

However, the Index which is part of the report titled “The Many Faces of Exclusion” shows that under five mortality rate (deaths per 1000 live births) was 43 which is a cause of concern. Also child stunting (children aged 0-59 months) was 38.4% and rated as high.
On the child marriage issue the Index shows that adolescents currently married or in union (girls aged 15-19) was 15.2%. This was 21.1% in the 2017 index where India figured as 116 out of 172 countries ranked. It is significant to point that the child marriage data assessed does not include data on consensual unions.
The Index this year ranked 175 countries with regards to where childhood is threatened as a result of poor health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labour, child marriage, early pregnancy and extreme violence.
In terms of the global scenario the report states that more than half of all children globally – over 1.2 billion – are threatened by conflict, widespread poverty or discrimination against girls.
“More than one billion children live in countries plagued by poverty; 240 million in countries affected by conflict and fragility; and more than 575 million girls live in countries where gender bias is a serious issue. Almost 153 million children are living in 20 countries affected by all three threats — including South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan,” it is stated in the report.
It is reported that malnutrition, disease and inadequate healthcare kill over 20 times as many children in war zones as conflict-related violence. The incidence of child labour in countries affected by armed conflict is 77 per cent higher than the global average. Conflict also makes girls more vulnerable to child marriage.
It report notes that despite their economic, military, and technological might, the United States (36th), Russia (37th) and China (40th) trail all western European countries in the index. Singapore and Slovenia are placed at the top sharing the first place in the index and Niger figures at the end of the list at 175. (Source: The Times of India)


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India’s ranking goes up in childhood index.

India ranks fourth in Asia-Pacific on power index - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

India ranks fourth in Asia-Pacific on power index.

India has ranked fourth out of 25 nations in the Asia-Pacific region on an index that measures their overall power, with the country being pegged as a “giant of the future” but trails behind in indicators of defence networks and economic relationships.

The Lowy Institute Asia Power Index measures power across 25 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching as far west as Pakistan, as far north as Russia, and as far into the Pacific as Australia, New Zealand and the US.
A country’s overall power is its weighted average across eight measures of power--economic resources, military capability, resilience, future trends, diplomatic influence, economic relationships, defence networks and cultural influence.
India is ranked fourth overall on the inaugural index by The Lowy Institute, an Australian think-tank.
“Japan and India share major power status. Tokyo is a smart power, while New Delhi is a giant of the future,” the report said. Among the key findings from the inaugural 2018 index are that the US remains the pre-eminent power in Asia, while China, the emerging superpower, is rapidly closing in on the United States.
“Three of the world’s four largest economies are in Asia, and the fourth, the United States, is a Pacific power. By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in Asia, compared with just over a tenth in the West,” the Institute said.
“Asia’s economic transformation is reshaping the global distribution of power, changing the way the region—and indeed the world—works politically and strategically. Just as significantly, tensions between Asian powers will define war and peace in the twenty-first century,” it added.
India is ranked fourth on the parameters economic resources, military capability, diplomatic influence and fifth on resilience.
It scores well on the parameters of cultural influence and future trends, ranking third in both. However, it scores low on the measure of economic relationships, ranking seventh and in defense networks, ranking tenth.
Lowy said economic relationship is measured in terms of the capacity of states or territories to exercise influence through economic interdependencies; measured in terms of trade relations, investment ties and economic diplomacy.
Defence networks are defence partnerships that act as force multipliers of military capability; measured through assessments of alliances, non-allied partnerships and arms transfers.
Cultural influence is defined as the ability to shape international public opinion through cultural appeal and interaction; measured in terms of cultural projection, information flows and people exchanges.
Future trends is the projected distribution of economic, military and demographic resources in 2030, which play into perceptions of power today; measured in terms of GDP, military expenditure and working-age population forecasts.
The report said India ranks third for its aggregate resources score and is set to become the fastest-growing economy in the region, predicted to grow 169 per cent between 2016 and 2030. It also stands to gain an additional 169 million people to its working-age population by 2030.
“However, the economic giant suffers from a poor track record of converting its sizeable resources base into strategic gain in Asia—despite New Delhi’s ‘Act East Policy’. It trails behind in the influence measures, most notably in defence networks and economic relationships,” it said.
The US claims the top spot in five of the eight Index measures and a 10-point lead over China in overall power. The country retains the most powerful military force in Asia and is at the centre of a network of regional alliances that Beijing cannot match, reflected by a 65-point lead over China in defence networks.
However, in terms of economic relationships the US lags China by more than 30 points, the glaring weakness in US influence in Asia.
US diplomatic influence in the region has also been damaged by nervousness about the Trump administration and its foreign policy decisions, including its withdrawal in 2017 from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “US political leadership in Asia is in doubt,” it said.
Most significantly, even if the United States continues to outspend China in military expenditure, future trends point to a relative decline in US power, with a second place finish only marginally ahead of India.
China holds a top-two position across all but one measure and ranks first in economic relationships, diplomatic influence and future trends. “Projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative play to Beijing’s strengths as the primary trade partner and source of foreign assistance in the region,” it said.
Russia, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Taiwan, the Philippines and North Korea are ranked as “middle powers” while Bangladesh, Brunei, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Mongolia, Laos and Nepal as “minor powers.”


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India ranks fourth in Asia-Pacific on power index.

India slides 16 spots to 78th position on globalisation index over 11 years - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

India slides 16 spots to 78th position on globalisation index over 11 years

India's 16-place drop over 11 years to 2015 was the second-worst change among these 16 countries.As flows of trade and people fell the world over since the 2008 global financial crash, India dropped 16 spots to 78 from 62 among 140 countries in 11 years to 2015 on a globalisation index brought out by international logistics company DHL

The Global Connectedness Index 2016, the fourth since it was first released in 2011, prepared by Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman (both teach management at New York University Stern School of Business, US), was released on November 15, 2016.
Measured by international flows of trade, capital, information and people, the index ranked India poorly among a group of comparable countries that included its neighbours in central and south Asia, and BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa). The authors slotted India in the central and south Asia group along with Georgia, Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic and Sri Lanka.
India’s 16-place drop over 11 years to 2015 was the second-worst change among these 16 countries.
Georgia fared the best by moving up 43 spots to 56 from 99 between 2005 and 2015, while Sri Lanka was the worst, dropping 19 spots to 86 from 67.
The index measures the parameters on depth and breadth. Depth evaluates the extent to which countries’ international flows are distributed globally or more narrowly focused, while breadth compares countries’ international flows to the sizes of their domestic economies.
India ranked 133 on depth and 21 on breadth among 140 countries in 2015.
Helped by its unchanged rank of 133 among 140 countries on depth in the 11 years to 2015, India ranked fifth on depth by change in rank between 2005 and 2015. Due to its six-rank drop on breadth from 15 in 2005, it ranked 12th by change in rank among the 16 comparable countries.
Trade flows are measured by exports as a share of a country’s gross domestic product, capital by foreign direct investment as a share of a country’s gross fixed capital and international stock market investment, information by international connectivity and people by share of international tourists and university students and migrants as a share of population.
On the four components, India dropped 13 places to 59 in 2015 from 46 in 2013 among 140 countries on trade, five places to 60 from 55 among 72 countries on capital, three places to 45 from 42 among 85 countries on information and one position to 80 from 81 among 102 countries on people.(Source: The business standard)


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India slides 16 spots to 78th position on globalisation index over 11 years