NITI Aayog, the central government body entrusted with engendering co-operative and competitive federalism in India, has come out with the second Round of Composite Water Management Index, or CWMI 2.0 for the year 2017-18.

The report is important as it ranks Indian states and Union Territories on the basis of the efficiency in management of water resources. The index has been prepared through a first of its kind water data collection exercise in partnership with Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Rural Development and all the states and Union Territories.

Gujarat has managed to retain its top spot in the index like the first iteration of the index while the Andhra Pradesh has bagged the second spot. It is followed by Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the ranking.

In North Eastern and Himalayan States, Himachal Pradesh has been adjudged number 1 in 2017-18 followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura and Assam. The Union Territories have first time submitted their data and Puducherry has been declared as the top ranker.

In terms of incremental change in index (over 2016-17 level), Haryana holds number one position in general states and Uttarakhand ranks at first position amongst North Eastern and Himalayan States. Over 80 per cent of the states accessed over the last three years have improved their scores.