Aspirational Districts - Unlocking potentials.

This Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is launched by the Government of India to accelerate improvement in the socio-economic indicators of the most underdeveloped districts of the country. The ADP focuses on practical and measurable social progress outcomes, including Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure. Each of these are critical to expanding shared prosperity among all citizens.
The ADP contributes to eliminating malnutrition. It was decided that the baseline ranking for the 115 Aspirational Districts would be based on 49 indicators across five sectors that include health and nutrition (30% weightage) through 13 indicators.
The ADP seeks to make agriculture more productive and sustainable. For instance, water-use efficiency is critical to the agricultural economy, impacting farmer income and environmental sustainability. Taking cognizance of this fact, one of the indicators under which districts will be ranked is the percentage of Net Sown Area (NSA) under micro-irrigation.
The ADP seeks to reduce rural poverty. It is a step towards the development and growth of some of the country’s most ignored populations. It directs and focuses resources and action towards the districts identified as the most disadvantaged. Given that poverty has a multi-dimensional impact on the overall well-being of the society as a whole, it has been given the maximum weight in the Composite Index of the ADP. Indicators of rural habitations without access to the minimum prescribed quantity of water, un-electrified households, rural households without individual toilets, and poor student teacher ratio have been given 7.5% respectively as the weightage in the Composite Index.
The ADP seeks to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural systems. Agriculture is the backbone of India, with more than 50% of the workforce engaged in cultivation and allied activities. Ten indicators have been identified for the 20% weightage allocated to agriculture. The focus is on outputs (yield, price realisation etc.), inputs (quality seed distribution, soil health cards), and institutional support (crop insurance, electronic markets, artificial insemination, animal vaccination etc.). For instance, the establishment of NATUECO models of organic crop production for nutritional security and BHUNGRU for rain water harvesting are two innovative initiatives and good practices to tackle the issue of agricultural produce and water crisis.
In terms of governance, the ADP is a collective effort. At the Central level, individual Ministries have responsibilities to drive the progress of the districts. The state governments are the main drivers of change. Each state has a committee under their respective Chief Secretaries to implement as well as track the programme. For each district, operationally, officers at the level of Additional Secretary have been nominated to become ‘Central Prabhari Officers’. The ADP further supports active collaborations among multiple levels of governance within each ADP district, and the use of public-private partnerships. The programme combines a host of governance innovations to improve accountability through monitoring, convergence through concerted action and ownership through public ranking. The real-time monitoring system will track and measure progress both transparently and reliably, allowing stakeholders to hold each other accountable.