Chandauli (UP) tops list of 112 aspirational districts ranked by NITI Aayog

Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh has topped the list of aspirational districts ranked by the government think tank NITI Aayog in December. Bolangir (Odisha) and YSR (Andhra Pradesh) have been placed at the second and third positions, respectively. Sahibganj (Jharkhand) has been ranked at the fourth spot and Hailakandi (Assam) at the fifth place. The delta rankings took into account incremental progress made by over 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas in December 2019. The ranking of aspirational districts is done every month.

Health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development and basic infrastructure were the development areas that were taken into consideration for the ranking.

About Aspirational Districts Programme

Aspirational districts programme, launched in January 2018, aims to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development. It aims to expeditiously improve the socio-economic status of 117 districts from across 28 states.

The three core principles of the programme are –

• Convergence (of Central & State Schemes)
• Collaboration (among citizens and functionaries of Central & State Governments including district teams), and
• Competition among districts.

Driven primarily by the States, this initiative focuses on the strengths of each district, and prioritizes the attainable outcomes for immediate improvement.

SOURCE: Business Standard, Outlook India

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