NEW DELHI: Just seven gram panchayats from north India figure among the top 83 panchayats on development index, in a bunch that is overwhelmingly crowded by southern states led by Andhra Pradesh Tellapur gram panchayat in Sangareddy district of Telangana has been found to be the best village in the country followed by Parapatla in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Cheedikada in Vishakhapatnam is ranked 3rd, Kajuluru (East Godavari), Unguturu (Krishna) and Eguva Thavanampalle (Chittoor) in AP, are ranked 4th, and Koujalagi in Belagavi in Karnataka and Indupalli in Krishna in AP, are ranked 5th.Crucially, the most developed panchayats include 33 from Andhra Pradesh, 21 in Tamil Nadu , six in Kerala, five from Maharashtra and Karnataka each, and four from Telangana.The first-ever ranking of villages forms part of the “baseline survey” done by Union rural development ministry among 50,000 gram panchayats that the “Antyodaya” scheme aims to turn “poverty free”.In what shows a skewed picture of development across the country, only seven panchayats from northern states figure in the privileged list of 83 GPs ranked up to 10th.The northern villages in the list are Barwasani in Sonepat in Haryana (rank 6), Usmanpur in Nawanshahr (ranked 7), Jadla and Kahma villages in Nawanshahr (ranked 8), Mana Singh Wala in Ferozepur and Naranwali in Gurdaspur, all in Punjab , and Pandaul (east) in Madhubani in Bihar (rank 10th).In sharp contrast, Andhra and Tamil Nadu have the most villages with overall development. Crucially, Gujarat figures nowhere in the list of 83 villages ranked from top to 10th.Interestingly, it is coastal Andhra which seems to have the most developed countryside. The rankings are based on the parameters of infrastructure, economic development and livelihoods, health and sanitation, women’s empowerment and financial inclusion.