New Delhi: Nuapada and Koraput districts in Odisha figured among top five districts in the Second Delta ranking for Aspirational Districts released by the NITI Aayog here Thursday.
In the overall ranking, Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu has been placed on top as most improved district followed by Nuapada, Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Aurangabad in Bihar and Koraput.
As many as 111 districts across the country have been ranked on the basis of incremental progress between June 1 and October 31 across six developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.
Nuapada district has been ranked second in matters of improvement in education while Malkangiri ranked 109th for least improvement.
Similarly, in terms of improvement in agriculture and water resources, Gajapati district ranked second. In basic infrastructure, Nuapada and Koraput were ranked second and fifth respectively while Rayagada was placed at fourth position for improvement in skill development sector.
According to a statement from NITI Aayog, 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). The surveys were carried out in all Aspirational Districts in June 2018 covering more than 1,00,000 households. These surveys were used to validate critical data-points and provide inputs for nine data-points for which district-level figures are not readily available at regular intervals.
Releasing the Second Delta Ranking, Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog 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.”
Notably, the “Transformation of Aspirational Districts” programme was launched in January 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts in the country.