GGI Index: What the ranking tells about Bihars progress – Hindustan Times

Bihar is ranked 15th among 18-major states (Group A and B category together) and 6th in Group B states, as per the latest Good Governance Index (GGI) - 2020-21, released by the Administration Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India, on Saturday in New Delhi.

A biannual exercise, GGI was first published in 2019. This year, it includes 58 indicators for 10 important sectors. The indicators have been revised this year incorporating additional process-based indicators in addition to the outcome and output-based indicators.

Bihar has been kept in other states Group B category with MP, Rajasthan, West Bengal Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, UP, Bihar, and Odisha. Though Bihar ranks second last in its category out of eight states overall, it has shown improvement in some key sectors.

Sudhanshu Kumar, economist & associate professor, Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF), Patna, said more weight has been assigned to the outcome and output based indicators compared to the process-based indicators while preparing the index and despite Bihars low ranking, it has done appreciably on the indicators associated with public infrastructure and utility sector, in which it is ranked No.1 in its category, ahead of states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

GGI 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 that can be used uniformly across the states to assess the impact of various interventions taken up by the Central and state governments including UTs. Based on the GGI framework, the index provides a comparative picture among the states.

The infrastructure & utilities sector includes access to water, rural road connectivity, and electricity-related indicators. The state has recently taken many initiatives to improve these and its benefits are getting reflected with better ranking. There is one indicator, per capita power consumption which is highly correlated with per capita income and industry and therefore will increase with the overall development of the state. Availability of electricity and its access both have improved a lot in the state, said Kumar.

Similarly, on indicators concerning citizen-centric governance, the state is ranked fourth in its category and seventh overall among 18 states. Bihar is among the first two states to enact right to service acts and first to have a grievance redressal mechanism. The state needs to improve online access to government services. This is something which can be easily improved, Kumar added.

The state has also shown improvement in human resource development and public health, in which it is ranked third in its category and 11th and 13th respectively among the 18 states. The state needs significant improvement in the economic governance sector. It needs to improve its own tax revenue as the share of its own taxes in total revenue is as low as 26%. With improvement on this, the debt scenario will also improve. This is something where the state needs to work to realise long-term goals of economic development, Kumar said.

However, Bihar fared poorly on the front of social welfare and development, where it is ranked last in its category as well as overall among 18 states. Bihar has done well on empowerment of women. However, more needs to be done on this to improve relative performance. Better coordination and implementation on MGNREGA will give better results in this sector. Lower health insurance coverage is one of the indicators used which is something that goes up with overall economic development as people realise benefits of insurance, he said, adding the state also needs to improve the availability of police personal.

Good proportion of police personal in the state are women, which is impressive and any further increase in personal will help in improving ranking on other indicators too. Areas of concern as highlighted by the index are low conviction rate and poor performance on disposal of court cases, he added.

The index reflects that the state has a lot of catching up to do on the key fronts of agriculture & allied sector and commerce & industry, where it is ranked 6th and 7th in its own category. Industrial growth in Bihar, however, has shown a dip. The state needs to work on crop insurance and generating surplus through value addition, besides ensuring improved access to the market. The state also needs to focus on ease of doing business and encourage a start-up environment, as this area has a lot of competition from other states. In the environment sector also, Bihar has to lay stress in waste recycle and renewable energy, he added.

Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues....view detail

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GGI Index: What the ranking tells about Bihars progress - Hindustan Times