• Aspirational districts should be ‘inspirational districts’ of India, and the Aspirational District Programme should be extended to block and city levels, Prime Minister said on Thursday.
• The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is one of the largest experiments on outcomes-focused governance in the world.
• The Government of India has launched the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ initiative in January, 2018 with a vision of a New India by 2022.
• The focus is to improve India’s ranking under Human Development Index, raising living standards of its citizens and ensuring inclusive growth of all.
• Aspirational Districts are those districts in India, that are affected by poor socio-economic indicators.
• These are aspirational in the context, that improvement in these districts can lead to the overall improvement in human development in India.
• A total of 117 Aspirational districts have been identified by NITI Aayog based upon composite indicators from Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure which have an impact on Human development Index.

Weightage has been accorded to these districts as :

• Health & Nutrition (30%)
• Education (30%)
• Agriculture & Water Resources (20%)
• Financial Inclusion & Skill Development (10%)
• Basic Infrastructure (10%)
• At the Government of India level, the programme is anchored by NITI Aayog. In addition, individual Ministries have assumed responsibility to drive the progress of districts.
• The objective of the program is to monitor the real-time progress of aspirational districts.
• The ranking is based on the incremental progress made across 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Model Question

Q. Who among the following implements the Aspirational District Programme of the Government of India?

(a) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

(b) Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

(c) NITI Aayog

(d) Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC)

Answer : C

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