As per the Composite Index Score 2019-20 announced by the NITI Aayog on Tuesday, Tripura emerged front runner in the ‘Smaller States’ category.
While Mizoram topped the list with a score of 75.77, Tripura scored 70.16 followed by Sikkim 55.53, Goa 53.68, Meghalaya 43.05, Manipur 34.26, Arunachal Pradesh 33.91 and Nagaland 27.00.
Based on the Composite Index Score range for the Reference Year (2019-20), the states are categorized into three categories- Aspirants, Achievers and Frontrunners. Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Nagaland are categorized as Aspirants, Goa and Sikkim fall in the category of Achievers and the states of Mizoram and Tripura are categorized as Front-runners, as per the NITI Aayog report.
Among the smaller states, Mizoram and Meghalaya secured first and second ranks respectively in terms of Incremental Performance. The incremental change in Health Index Scores from Base Year (2018-19) to Reference Year (2019-20) varied significantly across Smaller States with half of the states recording improvement. In addition to Mizoram and Meghalaya, positive incremental change was also observed in Nagaland and Tripura.
Tripura ranked at the top in the Health Outcomes domain performance whereas Nagaland ranked at the bottom. The Index Score of the best performing state (Tripura) was more than two and half times of the lowest performer (Nagaland) that recorded the lowest levels in several service delivery indicators such as full immunization, first trimester ANC registration, pregnant women receiving 4 ANCs and institutional delivery.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb hailed the success and wrote on Facebook, “Extremely happy to inform that #Tripura along with Mizoram has secured a place in top ranking ‘Smaller States’ in overall ranking based on the composite index score in 2019–20 by the Niti Aayog. Congratulations to all the people of the state and concerned authorities.”
