After a decade of precarious peace, Nagaland, India’s once troubled north-eastern state, now rivals and even outperforms India’s richest states on a number of development outcomes, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of 10 states on 20 socio-economic and health indicators.

However, poor infrastructure and a fragile peace continue to be problem areas as the state–formed on December 1, 1963–heads to the polls on February 27, 2018. Perched on India’s eastern edge bordering Myanmar, Nagaland is roughly the size of Kuwait and has 2 million people, the ...