Amit Shah to release India's first 'District Good Governance Index'

New Delhi: Aiming to boost the strong governance performance, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will virtually release India's first "District Good Governance Index", prepared by DARPG in collaboration with the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Minister of State for PMO, Personnel, PG and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh and the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will take part in the programme, according to an official statement.

The collaboration received from Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, enabled the conceptualization and formulation of an index that measures the diversity of governance model in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It provides a roadmap for similar benchmarking of Governance at the District level for all States and Union Territories of India.

The Union Minister of Home and Cooperation Amit Shah had released the National Good Governance Index on December 25, 2021.

The Good Governance Index 2021 indicated that Jammu and Kashmir had registered an increase of 3.7 per cent in Good Governance Indicators over the 2019 to 2021 period. Strong performances were witnessed in Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Allied Sectors, Public Infrastructure & Utilities, Judiciary and Public Safety Sectors.

Significant improvements were reported in Ease of Doing Business, Tax collection, Skill training imparted, Connectivity to rural habitations, Economic empowerment of women, Health insurance coverage and Housing for all.

There were improvements in conviction rates, disposal of court cases and proportion of women police personnel. Citizen-Centric Governance sector witnessed a strong performance.

In this backdrop of strong governance performance at the National level, the Government of Jammu & Kashmir's initiative of benchmarking governance at District level assumes considerable significance. The District Good Governance Index has helped identify the impact of various governance interventions at district level and provide a futuristic roadmap for improving district level governance with targeted interventions.