NITI Aayog to Release Second Delta Ranking under the Aspirational Districts Programme - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

NITI Aayog to Release Second Delta Ranking under the Aspirational Districts Programme.

NITI Aayog will release the Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) tomorrow, i.e. December 27, 2018. Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog will release the Second Delta Ranking under ADP and brief the media on this occasion.

The ranking will measure the incremental progress made by districts between June 1, 2018 and October 31, 2018.

The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure through key performance indicators. The rankings are based on the data that is publicly available through the Champions of Change Dashboard, which includes data entered on a real-time basis at the district level.
The rankings, for the first time, will also factor in inputs from household survey conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners, namely, TATA Trusts and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
The Aspirational District Programme was launched by the Prime Minister on January 5, 2018. It aims to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development, thereby posing a challenge to ensure balanced regional development.
The first Delta ranking for the Aspirational Districts was released in June 2018.It ranked the Aspirational Districts on improved performance across five developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure, over the months of April and May 2018, on the basis of self-reported data.


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NITI Aayog to Release Second Delta Ranking under the Aspirational Districts Programme.

Soon, Ranking For Cities Over Revival Of Water Bodies - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Soon, Ranking For Cities Over Revival Of Water Bodies.

The government will soon launch a competition among cities for revival of water bodies. The cities that do well in the competition will awarded a higher ranking and financial assistance to encourage more to join the competition.

This initiative will be a part of the drive to make cities across the country flood resilient. The urban affairs ministry will soon come out with the guidelines for this competition as cities face more threats of flooding because of blocked drainage system and dying natural water bodies, where rain water accumulates.
“Natural terrain of cities used to carry water to natural sponges. But now because of concretisation, the drains that used to carry water to the ponds and lakes have been blocked. Moreover, drains carrying rainwater also get the waste water, which should not enter the water bodies. This is a huge challenge, but we need to find a way out,” said a government.


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Soon, Ranking For Cities Over Revival Of Water Bodies.

India climbs to 57th position in Global Innovation Index ranking - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India climbs to 57th position in Global Innovation Index ranking.

India was ranked 57th in the latest Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings released recently. This marks the third consecutive year of India’s climb in GII rankings, starting in 2015. Switzerland, on the other hand, maintains its top stop for the second year in a row.

India has come a long way from 2015 when it was ranked 81st, 66th in 2016 and 60th in 2017. Even though India is ranked 57th globally, it occupies the top spot in the central and south Asian region.
China, along with India is on the climb, ranking 17th this year bettering its last year’s rank of 20th. India still needs to focus on some parameters to catch up to China.
According to the report, India’s weakness parameters include political stability & safety, ease of starting a business, overall education, ICT use, environmental performance, etc. There is a need to improve these parameters to move ahead in the rankings.
Chandrajit Banerjee, DG, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said, “Given its size and innovation development, India has the potential to make a true difference to the global innovation landscape in the years to come. The Indian government and CII are working closely with the GII team to further improve the Indian innovation performance.”
Looking at the global front, countries that featured in the top 10 list are: Switzerland (1), Netherlands (2), Sweden (3), United Kingdom (4), Singapore (5), United States (6), Finland (7), Denmark (8), Germany (9), Ireland (10).
GII has emerged as an important tool in judging the countries based on their innovation, making it vital for business executives, policymakers, and other stakeholders. It is being used to evaluate the progress of countries on a continual basis. GII is jointly developed by Cornell University, INSEAD, along with World International Property Organisation (WIPO).
India’s Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is one of its knowledge partners that helps with the annual rankings.
GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 parameters, including, ease of starting a business, intellectual property filing rates, political stability & safety, online creativity, etc. It is now in its 11th year of publishing ranks since its inception in 2007.


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India climbs to 57th position in Global Innovation Index ranking.

Ease of doing business state rankings: Andhra, Telangana, Haryana ranked as top three states to do business in India - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Ease of doing business state rankings: Andhra, Telangana, Haryana ranked as top three states to do business in India.

The rankings, jointly prepared by the World Bank and DIPP, serve as a check-list of sorts for evaluating states on a 340-point Business Reform Action Plan, between the period of July, 2016 and July, 2018.

Andhra Pradesh has topped the government’s ease of doing business index for states, ahead of the industrialised states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The topping southern state was followed by Telangana and Haryana which grabbed the second and third spots respectively, according to the third edition of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s (DIPP’s) Business Reforms Action Plan, 2017.
The final rankings were arrived at after a combination of "reform evidence score" and "feedback score".
The highlights were the states of Jharkhand and Telangana who scored a 100.00% score in their reform evidence scores.
Jharkhand, which is home to several steel plants as well as coal and iron ore mines, clocked 100 percent in the “reform evidence scorecard,”
The "reform evidence score" is allotted on the basis of 372 recommendations for reforms on regulatory processes, policies, practices and procedures spread across 12 reform areas.
In this year’s edition of rankings, DIPP carried out a comprehensive business-to-government (B2G) feedback exercise, where feedback was taken from businesses on the quality of implementation of the reforms claimed by the states.
Telangana dropped to the second spot after topping the rankings last year.
The idea behind ranking states is to induce competition to attract investment and improve the business climate. In addition, these rankings indicate that the states have the potential to attract business and undertake various reforms that are being undertaken by the Centre.
In 2016, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh jointly emerged as number one states to do business, ahead of Gujarat - Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state - that was number one in 2015.
The report has thrown up surprising results with Maharashtra, often touted as India’s most industrialised state - led by the bustling financial capital of Mumbai - ranked 13th with a reform evidence score of 97.29 percent and a "feedback score" of 50.29%. Similarly, despite being an industrial hub, the southernmost state Tamil Nadu clocked 15th rank, with a "reform evidence score" of 95.93 percent and a feedback score of 43.90%. Both the states were listed as achievers in the ranking.
The national capital Delhi’s score deteriorated to 33.99 percent, from 47 percent in 2016 and it stood at the 23rd spot in this year's rankings.
North-eastern states except Assam continue to remain at the bottom of the heap, underlining the urgency of immediate policy interventions to turn these states into business-friendly destinations.
The rankings, jointly prepared by the World Bank and DIPP, serve as a check-list of sorts for evaluating states on a 340-point Business Reform Action Plan, between the period of July, 2016 and July, 2018.
The latest listing of the states comes days before the World Bank’s annual Ease of Doing Business report, 2017. Last year, India leapfrogged to the 100th rank in the Doing Business rankings for 2016, jumping 30 notches from a year ago, in an endorsement of the string of reforms implemented by the Narendra Modi government.


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Ease of doing business state rankings: Andhra, Telangana, Haryana ranked as top three states to do business in India.