india

Updated: Dec 27, 2018 14:00 IST

The NITI Aayog on Thursday released the second delta ranking of the districts of the country reflecting the incremental progress made by them between June and October with Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar emerging as the top performer.

The government think-tank said the districts have been ranked on parameters including health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, and basic infrastructure.

Nuapada in Odisha, Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Aurangabad in Bihar and Koraput in Odisha were ranked from 2nd to 5th respectively on top performers’ list.

Pakur in Jharkhand, at 111th position was one of the backward districts that have not done well on vital parameters. Giridh and Chatra from the state were also among the under performers. Also at the bottom of the list were Hailakandi in Assam and Kiphire in Nagaland

“The rankings, for the first time, factored in inputs from household survey conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners -- Tata Trusts and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” a NITI Aayog statement said.

In its first such ranking released in June, Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara came at the bottom while Gujarat’s Dahod topped the chart in terms of improvement made by them.

The 20 bottom-ranked districts included nine districts from Bihar, five from Jharkhand and three from Odisha.

The government has maintained that its Aspirational District Programme aims to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development, thereby posing a challenge to ensure balanced regional development.

(with agency inputs)