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Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

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Topic: Public Affairs Index – 2020

Why in News?

• Bengaluru-based not-for-profit organisation, Public Affairs Centre has released a report "Public Affairs Index 2020" measuring governance across various states.

Public Affairs Index (PAI 2020)

• The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2020) is a scientifically rigorous, databased framework that measures the quality of governance at the subnational level and ranks the states and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
• States are classified into two categories- large and small- using population as the criteria.
• The three dimensions of sustainable development- Equity, Growth and Sustainability as the overarching goals of governance, constitute the bases in the approach to measuring the performance of the states.
• Each of the three pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis themes (Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption); 13 Sustainable Development Goals and 50 indicators.

The Three Pillars

• The Equity Principle: The pillar of Equity examines the political economy of exclusion from the perspective of the states and UTs.
• The Growth Imperative: The Growth pillar dwells on India’s growth challenge and the concerns that need attention for sustainable development.
• Sustainability As An Organising Principle: The Sustainability pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind.

Major Highlights

• Four southern states, Kerala (1.388 PAI Index point), Tamil Nadu (0.912), Andhra Pradesh (0.531) and Karnataka (0.468) stood in the first four ranks in the large state category in terms of governance.
• Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar were at the bottom of the ranking, scoring negative points in the category. They got - 1.461, -1.201 and -1.158 points respectively.
• In the small state category, Goa ranked first with 1.745 points, followed by Meghalaya (0.797) and Himachal Pradesh (0.725).
• Worst performers who scored negative points are Manipur (-0.363), Delhi (-0.289) and Uttarakhand (-0.277), according to the PAC report.
• Chandigarh emerged the best governed union territory in the category of UTs with 1.05 PAI points, followed by Puducherry (0.52) and Lakshadweep (0.003). Dadar and Nagar Haveli (-0.69), Andaman, Jammu and Kashmir (-0.50) and Nicobar (-0.30) were the least performers.

Delta Analysis

• The Delta Analysis presents the results on state performance and ranking measured as the Delta value over the last five years from 2015-16 when the first PAI was released to 2019-20, covered by PAI 2020.
• In the large states’ category, in terms of Equity, Bihar followed by West Bengal, Odisha who feature towards the bottom of PAI 2020 are the top performers, while Kerala, Punjab and Maharashtra feature at the bottom amongst the large states
• In the case of small states, Mizoram is the top performer, while Goa is placed at the bottom
• In the Growth pillar, Bihar, Assam and Odisha showed the highest growth in delta, while Kerala and Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh featured among the bottom in the delta analysis with Tamil Nadu being at the bottom.
• Among small states, Mizoram and Meghalaya have the highest growth with Manipur at the bottom. Himachal Pradesh ranks 2nd in PAI 2020, but has the least growth in Delta
• In terms of Sustainability, Odisha and Haryana, show the largest growth in delta. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka have also shown consistent growth. Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Assam find places towards the bottom of the Delta rankings
• Among small states, Goa is a consistent top performer followed by Delhi and Tripura. Meghalaya and Mizoram feature at the bottom.