Good Governance Index

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What is Good Governance

• Governance is defined as the use of power and authority by those in government to provide goods and services to the people to uphold the common good and fulfill the aspirations and needs of the common man. People expect their government to proceed with its tasks in a way that maximum results follow with minimum cost or investment. 
• Governance becomes good when the decisions and actions of the government are based on peoples’ consent, legitimacy, and accountability. It is a concept that is inclusive and positive in nature.

What are the features of Good Governance

As per World Bank reports of 1989 and 1992, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Commission on Global Governance (1995), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 1997, the attributes of good governance refers to

• people’s participation in governance,
• accountability of the decision-makers,
• women’s participation in decision making, 
• meeting the needs of disadvantaged groups, 
• guarantee of human rights,
• keeping the needs of the future generation in mind while decision making and whether the people own their structures of governance or not.

What is Good Governance Index

• To emphasize the government’s commitment towards good governance ,the Government of India declared 25 December as the Good Governance Day.  It is the birth date of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was started in 2014 .
• To encourage and assess the performance of the State government in Good governance and to promote citizen centric development in the country, the Government of India launched the Good governance Index. 
• The objective of GGI is to create a tool that can be used uniformly across the States to assess the impact of various schemes and programs of the Central and State Governments including UTs on the people.
• Another significant contribution of the GGI would be contributing in tracking the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the state level. The identified sectors and indicators are directly linked to some of the critical SDG indicators from an overall governance point of view.  
• It is released on Good Governance Day (25th December)

Who publishes the Good Governance Index

• The Index is published by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) under the Union  Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
• The framework for assessing the quality of governance is prepared by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad in collaboration with AC Nielsen

When was it first published 

It was first published in 2019 and and it is released after every two years. The latest edition is released on 25th December 2021. 

What is included in the Good Governance Index 

The GGI 2020-21 encompassed 10 Governance Sectors and 58 Governance Indicators

• Agriculture and Allied Sector
• Commerce & Industries
• Human Resource Development
• Public Health
• Public Infrastructure & Utilities
• Economic Governance
• Social Welfare & Development
• Judicial & Public Security
• Environment,
• Citizen-Centric Governance.

Change as compared to the 2019 Index

The 2019 index included 10 governance sectors and 50 governance indicators . In the 2021 index the governance sectors are 10 but the governance indicators have been increased to 58.

Highlights of the 2021 Index

The GGI 2020-21 categorizes States and UTs into four categories

• Group A - It includes Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh
•  Group B - It includes Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and West Bengal
• North-East and Hill States - It includes Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh
• Union Territories - It includes Delhi, Puducherry, Daman & Diu, Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra &Nagar Haveli, and Lakshadweep

Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa top the composite rank score covering 10 sectors.

Ranking of the  States group wise 

•  Group A:
• Gujarat has topped the composite ranking (12.3% increase over the GGI 2019 indicators), followed by Maharashtra and Goa.
• Group B:
• Madhya Pradesh tops the list followed by Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
• North-East and Hill States:
• Himachal Pradesh topped the list followed by Mizoram and Uttarakhand.
• Union Territories:
• Delhi topped the list.

UP has secured top position in Commerce & Industry sector

The GGI 2021 says that 20 States have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 index scores. This indicates that overall governance in the states of India is moving in a positive direction.

Written by Shankha Shubhra Dutta