New Delhi, Jun 29: Among the 108 most backward districts across the country, Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara has shown the least improvement while Gujarat’s Dahod has shown the most, the NITI Aayog said on Friday.
Releasing the first “delta ranking” of the most backward districts in the country — which the NITI Aayog has dubbed as aspirational districts — the government’s premier think-tank said the purpose of the ranking is to spur a sense of competition among them.
The 20 bottom ranked districts include nine districts from Bihar, five from Jharkhand and three from Odisha.
Apart from Kupwara, Bihar’s Begusarai, and Jharkhand’s Ranchi and Simdega have fared the worst improvement being ranked at the bottom.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had last year said that districts in a few eastern India states were holding India back and there was a need to “name and shame them”.
He had then said there was a need to create a baseline survey and monitor these states and districts on a regular basis and put it all in the public domain.
“We need to name and shame these states and districts. We must bring it out that these are the states which are holding India back,” he had said.
Districts which have fared well in the rankings include Gujarat’s Dahod, West Sikkim and Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram ranked first, second and third respectively.
