CHENNAI: The Union government's Department of Administration Reforms and Public Grievances is planning to come out with new indicators for good governance to gauge the performance of states and union territories.
The new indicators are being worked out as some of the existing indicators have reached saturation levels and are no longer relevant. Accordingly, the department has identified new indicators after consulting various ministries and departments.
Sources hinted that the opinion of the state is being sought on indicators in seven areas. Indicators in these areas have been proposed by other states and union territories during a meeting held recently. The index, a uniform tool to assess the status of governance and the impact of various interventions taken up by state governments and union territories, took up 50 indicators before deciding on the rankings for the state in 10 sectors in 2019.
However, the score and ranks for GGI 2020-21 were computed based on 58 indicators and 10 sectors. The sectors include agriculture and allied sectors; commerce & industries; human resource development; public health; public infrastructure & utilities; economic governance; social welfare and development; judicial and public security; environment, and citizen-centric governance.
Interestingly, the state was ranked first in the good governance index among the 29 states and seven union territories in 2019. During the 2021 rankings, Tamil Nadu topped in the judiciary and public safety. Sources indicated that for 2023, there is a likelihood that the Centre will be coming out with 65 indicators to rank the states and a key meeting is likely to be held shortly.
Sources said a few states suggested doing away with the indicator pertaining to 'meat production' while others wanted the issuance of Kissan credit cards by states, percentage of animals vaccinated, increase in agriculture credit, production of wool and hides in the agriculture and allied sector.
The other sectors include human resources where suggestions include taking up the student-to-teacher ratio, the dropout rate of Class 8, 9, and 10 and vocational training linkage. Other areas include public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, judiciary and public safety.