Good Governance Index as a tool to improve governance
Good governance refers to an effective and efficient process of decision making and process by which decisions are implemented keeping in mind the amelioration of citizens on top.
Good governance index (GGI) which has been recently launched is a tool to help assess the status of governance in the country. It has been launched on the December 25th which is birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the day has been declared as Good Governance Day. Objectives of the GGI include data which is quantifiable to compare states and UTs, thus formulating and implementing suitable strategy to improve governance.
Measuring performance
The index considers 10 sectors which include :
1) Agriculture and allied sector
2) Commerce and industry
3) Human resource development
4) Public health
5) Public infrastructure & utilities
6) Economic governance
7) Social welfare & development
8) Judicial & public security
9) Environment
10) Citizen centric governance
All these sectors will be assessed via 50 indicators which have been assigned different weights and will be summed up to reach a composite scores. For example, agriculture and allied sector has six indicators where – growth of the sector has a weight of 0.4 , growth rate of milk production has a weight of 0.1 , growth of food grain has a weigh of 0.1.
The performance of public and judicial security is to be judged by indicators which include rate of conviction, availability of police and proportion of women police. The ranks of UTs and states will be done separately. They have been categorised into three groups – Big states, Northeast & Hills and the UTs.
As per performance on the index, Tamil Nadu has the highest score, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka. Among the hilly states , Himachal Pradesh has topped with Uttarakhand and Tripura following. While in the list of environmental rankings, West Bengal has topped followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In terms of economic ranking, Karnataka is on top followed by Maharashtra and Telangana.