Government launches index to rank states, UTs on good governance relying on 50 parameters across 10 sectors

New Delhi: A good governance index (GGI) was launched on Wednesday by the central government to assess the state of governance in the country, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry. 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, the statement said. [caption id=“attachment_1989685” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Various principles have been kept in mind while selecting the indicators, i.e. it should be easy to understand and calculate, citizen-centric and result driven, leading to improved results and applicable to all states and UTs, among others, it said. “The good governance index is a uniform tool across states to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the state government and union territories,” the statement said. The GGI takes into consideration 10 sectors — agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industries, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, social welfare & development, judicial and public security, environment and citizen-centric governance. These 10 governance sectors are further measured on a total of 50 indicators. These indicators are given different weightage under one governance sector to calculate the value. For instance, under agriculture and allied sector, there are six indicators with different weightage such as growth rate of agriculture and allied sector, growth rate of food grains production, growth rate of horticulture produce, growth rate of milk production, growth rate of meat production and crop insurance, the ministry said. The states and UTs are divided into three groups – big states, north-east and hill states, and Union territories. The states and UTs are ranked on all indicators separately, at the same time composite ranking is also calculated for these states and UTs under their respective groups based upon these indicators, the statement said. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh launched the ‘good governance index’ at an event organised by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions on the occasion of good governance day. The good governance day is observed on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Speaking on the occasion, Singh said the good governance index has been scientifically designed on various parameters of governance. He said that it has been designed keeping in mind the citizen-centricity, which is the prime mantra of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Singh said documentation of good governance index is our effort in the direction to carry forward the prime minister’s vision for good governance. The minister also launched smart cards for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) canteen to promote cashless transactions and digitisation. The 15th edition of Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP) was unveiled by Singh. The main features of CSMOP, which enables the march towards the digital secretariat, are a new chapter on e-office digitization framework that provides guidelines for scanning, entry and storage of data, provision of virtual private network for officers of the rank of deputy secretary and above rank officers and decision making chapter provides a list of various websites and their links.