Indices

Work is underway on the third round of the index. Along with the third edition, NITI Aayog will also launch a new and comprehensive dashboard, with district-wise data in the water sector. A training session on the new dashboard was conducted on 17 November 2020 for all State nodal officers who will update the data on the portal. Read the last report here. 

Despite the critical role of district hospitals in providing inclusive secondary-level healthcare services and the generous funds allocated to them under the National Health Mission, there is no comprehensive system to assess their performance. Therefore, as per a framework designed by a working group comprising experts from WHO and MoH&FW, NITI Aayog undertook the exercise of tracking the performance of district hospitals based on 10 Key Performance Indicators. The National Accreditation Board of Hospitals–Quality Council of India (NABH-QCI) was selected for data validation through a competitive bidding process. Top-performing district hospitals for FY 2017-18 in each of the 10 indicators were identified and their best practices were collected and documented. Read the report here. District Hospital Index - Round 2 is currently underway.

The first-ever Export Preparedness Index (EPI) was launched in August 2020 and developed by NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute for Competitiveness. EPI ranks all States and Union Territories based on their export readiness and performance. EPI 2020 is based on four pillars: export policy; business environment; export infrastructure; and export performance. It can be used by States and UTs to benchmark their performance against their peers and analyze the potential challenges to develop better policy mechanisms to foster export-led growth at the subnational level. 

NITI Aayog has been continuously working towards improving India’s ranking in the global indices, including the Global Innovation Index. The Science and Technology Vertical is the nodal department in NITI with respect to improving India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index. The Vertical has been in touch with the publishing agency World Intellectual Property Organization as well as Line Ministries to address gaps in the availability of reliable data. NITI Aayog is working proactively towards bringing policy interventions that could leverage India’s underlying potential. Due to NITI Aayog’s sustained efforts, India has been on a rising trajectory, over the past several years in the Global Innovation Index (GII), from a rank of 81 in 2015 to 46 in 2021.

The India Innovation Index is released by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness every year. The index attempts to create an extensive framework for the continuous evaluation of the innovation environment in all States and Union Territories; it ranks them on the basis of their scores. NITI Aayog released the second edition on 20 January 2021. NITI is also handholding States and Union Territories in improving their rankings in the index, which will subsequently result in the improvement of India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index. Read the latest report here .

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty, covering over 100 developing countries. NITI Aayog has been assigned the nodal responsibility for the global MPI in India. As part of this mandate, NITI Aayog is responsible for monitoring progress, reviewing States and Union Territories’ rankings and performance, preparing reform action plans, and constructing an indigenised national MPI in collaboration with the publishing agencies, OPHI and UNDP. A national MPI will enable the Centre and States to understand the factors hindering their growth and assist them in making interventions more effective and impactful.

NITI Aayog had released the first School Education Quality Index (SEQI) in September 2019. Now, as per the inputs received from various State Governments, the SEQI indicators will be revisited/revised in consultation with all stakeholders, and some new indicators will be prepared. The next version of SEQI will be released after the availability of the National Achievement Survey 2021 data.

The SDG India Index is the world’s first Government-led subnational measure of SDG progress. The first edition of the index was launched in December 2018; the second came out on 30 December 2019; and the third edition was launched in June 2021. A dashboard has been developed for the index, with interactive visualisation, which is in the public domain. The dashboard is currently being upgraded with multiple new features and interactive user elements to further increase its utility. Read the latest report here and the 2019 report here. Read more about the SDGs here.

NITI Aayog is working on a State Energy Index to assess the performance of States based on indicators covering the discoms’ viability and competition, access, affordability and reliability of energy, clean energy initiatives, energy efficiency, etc. The index will further improve States’ performance to efficiently manage their energy resources.

NITI Aayog, in collaboration with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and with technical assistance from the World Bank, has been spearheading the health index initiative since 2017 to measure the annual performance of States and Union Territories on a variety of indicators. These include health outcomes, governance and processes. The index aims to nudge States towards transformative action in the health sector. The index report for round four (2019-20) was released in December 2021. Read the report here.