Highlighting India’s eastern states’ remarkable ranking on ease of doing business index, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has stated that the country needs to do well on the human development index (HDI) as well. His remarks came a day after he said the states in India’s southern and western region were growing rapidly, but those like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were keeping the country backward. Besides, India is still 131 out of 188 countries in HDI.
Kant noted that several Indian states remain backward on human development indicators because of legacy issues. He added that the government’s Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) aims to correct this by focusing on education, health and nutrition on a real-time basis and they are capturing incremental progress of 115 districts on 49 indicators.
NITI Aayog CEO further said that the focus of the ADP is to improve India’s rank in HDI, raising the living standards of citizens and ensuring inclusive growth for all. The programme is being implemented in the spirit of cooperative federalism in full partnership with states. He added that these states have achieved impressive economic growth in recent years and this must be accompanied by all-round development as envisaged in the ADP.
