New Delhi: As many as 20 states have shown significant improvement in good governance as revealed by the Good Governance Index-2021 brought out by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). These states are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
The Good Governance Index-2021, which was released on December 25 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors are agriculture and allied sectors, 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.
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa top the composite rank score covering 10 sectors. The GGI-2021 says that Gujarat registered a 12.3 per cent increase and Goa registered 24.7 per cent increase over GGI-2019 indicators. Gujarat has performed strongly in five of the 10 sectors including economic governance, human resource development, public infrastructure and utilities, social welfare and development, judiciary and public safety.
Maharashtra has performed strongly in agriculture and allied sector, human resource development, public infrastructure and utilities, social welfare and development. Goa has performed strongly in agriculture and allied sector, commerce and industry, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, social welfare and development and environment.
GGI-2021 says that Uttar Pradesh has shown an incremental growth of 8.9 per cent over GGI-2019 performance. Among the sectors, UP has 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. Uttar Pradesh has also performed in citizen centric governance including public grievance redressal.
As per the GGI-2021, Jharkhand has shown an incremental growth of 12.6 per cent over GGI 2019 performance. Jharkhand has performed strongly in seven of the 10 sectors. Rajasthan has shown an incremental growth of 1.7 per cent over the GGI-2019 performance. Rajasthan has topped the other states in judiciary and public safety, environment and citizen centric governance.
In the North-East 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 & Kashmir has performed strongly in the commerce and industry sector and has improved its scores in agriculture and allied sector, public infrastructure and utilities.
In addition to the existing quantitative indicators, additional process and input-based indicators are made part of GGI 20202-21 framework. The aim of including additional dimensions is to make GGI a more wholistic tool of measuring governance. A roadmap of inclusion of qualitative aspects, approach for inclusion of new indicators and making the required data available for index computation is included in the report of GGI 2020-21. /BI/
