Good Governance Index : Mizoram shows highest incremental change

GUWAHATI, Dec 28
Mizoram registered the highest incremental change in the Good Governance Index among North East States, while Manipur registered the highest decline.
This was revealed in the Good Governance Index 2021 report released on Good Governance Day recently in New Delhi. The report was released by the Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah.
Amit Shah said people have long been waiting for good governance, which was delivered by the Narendra Modi Government in the last seven years. He said people’s faith in democracy has enhanced since 2014, as they started getting benefits of development undertaken by the Modi Government.
Giving an example of good governance, Shah said there hasn’t been a single corruption charge against the Modi Government in the last seven years as it is a clean and transparent administration.
According to the report, Assam registered a negative growth of -0.6% as compared to last year. Among North East States, Mizoram registered the highest incremental change of 10.4% followed by Sikkim at 4.7%, Nagaland (1.9%) and a marginal growth of 0.1% in Tripura.
On the other end of the spectrum, Manipur recorded the highest decline of -11.2%, followed by Meghalaya at -8.8%, Arunachal Pradesh (-6.2%) and Assam (-0.6%). The GGI 2020-21 categorizes States and UTs into four categories- (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories.  
Good Governance is the key component of the economic transformation and with the present Government’s focus on ‘minimum Government and maximum governance’ the Index assumes more significance.
It is a comprehensive and implementable framework to assess the state of governance across the States and UTs, which enables ranking of States/districts. The objective of GGI is to create a tool which can be used uniformly across the States to assess impact of various interventions taken up by the Central and State Governments, including Union Territories.
Good Governance Index, GGI 2021 Framework, covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are 1) Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2) Commerce & Industries, 3) Human Resource Development, 4) Public Health, 5) Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6) Economic Governance, 7) Social Welfare & Development, 8) Judicial & Public Security, 9) Environment, and 10) Citizen-Centric Governance.
According to the CGI 2021 for the North East and Hill States category, Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir registered an increase of 10.4% and 3.7% respectively over GGI 2019. Mizoram performed strongly in commerce and industry, human resource development, public health and economic governance.
On the industry and commerce front, out of eight NE States, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Tripura are showing decline in growth rate of industries. Except Assam and Tripura which have declined in the portal score of Ease of Doing Business, all States in this group show a healthy growth in portal score of Ease of Doing Business.
In the agriculture and allied sector, horticulture production, the mainstay of North East States, is showing a declining trend except in Manipur. Crop insurance is increasing in some of the North East States. However, overall, this is also on the declining trend.
On the human resource development front, the retention rate at elementary levels in North East and other hill States is maintained at a higher level and there is marginal improvement from the previous Good Governance Index.
Gender Parity Index, which is a directly calculated figure being used in GGI, has a steady growth or has either maintained at previous levels in all North East and hill States. The skill training imparted along with placement ratio are showing an increasing trend in all the States.
On the public health side, all North East States as well as the hill States have registered a significant improvement in the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) compared with the previous GGI. The immunisation rates in these States either maintained at the previously-reported rates, or showed a minor improvement. The availability of doctors at primary health centres has improved in J&K, Manipur and Meghalaya and Uttarakhand. However, this is showing a declining trend in Himachal Pradesh.
On the public infrastructure, all North East and Hill States also are showing an increasing trend in the form of increased rural habitation connectivity, increased energy availability against the requirement.  
On the economic governance side, all eight North East States have registered higher debt to GSDP compared to previous GGI. Assam (25.41) followed by Manipur (10.88), Meghalaya (19.44), Sikkim (16.01) and Mizoram (8.80) have registered growth in their own tax revenues to total revenues.
On the social welfare and development side, except for Mizoram and Assam, all other North East States have shown significant growth in Housing for All as well as Rural Employment Guarantee. All North East states have registered growth in economic empowerment of women. A similar growth is also registered in rural employment guarantee in the North East States including the hill States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Except for Manipur and Mizoram, the sex ratio at birth in the remaining NE States has registered growth.
In the judiciary and public sector sector, women police personnel availability in the North East and other hill States have increased over the previous GGI. However, the overall police personnel availability is showing a general trend of decline although it has improved in Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram.
The conviction rate along with disposal of cases by consumer Courts are showing a general declining trend in all the North East States.
East Mojo