Nagaland’s Kiphire ranks poorly among Aspirational districts

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Jan. 5 (EMN): Aspirational district Kiphire in Nagaland performed poorly in the development ranking carried out by the government’s think-tank NITI Aayog in November 2020, indicating slow pace of progress.

According to NITI Aayog’s delta ranking based on the progress made by over 112 Aspirational districts in November last year, Ramgarh of Jharkhand topped the list, followed by Yadgir (Karnataka), Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), Dumka and Sahibganj (both in Jharkhand).

The five bottom performing districts are: Garhwa (Jharkhand), Shraswati (Uttar Pradesh), Dhalai (Tripura), Namsai (Arunachal Pradesh) and Chandel (Manipur).

NITI Aayog’s delta ranking took into account the progress made by the Aspirational districts across six developmental areas viz. health and nutrition; education; agriculture and water resource; financial inclusion and skill development; and basic infrastructure.

Health and nutrition:  Ranchi (Jharkhand) topped in health and nutrition with indicator value of 60.76 improvements since inception, followed by Sukma (Chhattisgarh) with a value of 47.89. Meanwhile, Nabarangapur in Odisha is in the bottom with a value of 5.0, followed by Malknagiri (Odisha) with a value of 5.790 and Kiphire (Nagaland) with a value of 6.050.

Financial Inclusion and Skill Development: Goalpara (Assam) topped the list in this sector with a value of 587.0, and Darrang, also from the same state, is placed in the second position with indicator value of 586.5.

Kiphire (Nagaland) is in the bottom in this area with a value of 5.00, with no improvement shown since the inception of Aspirational Distrcits programme in April 2018), and it is followed by Khunti (Jharkhand) with a value of 6.850.

Agriculture and Water Resources:  With indicator value of 95, Araria (Bihar) topped the list in agriculture and water resource, followed by Udalguri (Assam) with a value of 79.70. Balangir (Odisha) is at the bottom of the ranking with indicator value of 5.0, followed by Bhadradri-Khothagudem (Telangana) with a value of 5.870 since the inception of the programme.

However, Kiphire showed improvement of 29.12 per cent in this sector during November 2020.

Education: Balrampur (Uttar Pradesh) topped the list in education sector with indicator value of 89.68, followed by Rayagada (Odisha) with 54.94 points, while Bhoopalapalli (Warangal) in Telangana is placed in the bottom with a value of 5.00, followed by Yadgir (Karnataka) with a value of 9.570.

In education, Kiphire, showed 25.88 per cent improvement in November 2020.

Basic Infrastructure: In basic infrastructure area, Bhadrari-Kuthagudem (Telangana) topped the list with indicator value of 95.00, and it is followed by Darrang (Assam) with a value of 61.52.

Baramula (Jammu and Kashmir) is in the bottom with indicator value 5.00, followed by West district Sikkim with a value of 8.760. Kiphire (Nagaland), which has an indicator value of 11.08 in this area (since the inception of the programme), is listed in the ‘Bottom 10 districts’.