Highlights of NITI Aayog’s 4th edition of State Health Index for 2019-20

On December 27, 2021, the 4^th edition of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog’s State Health Index for 2019–20 was released in the report titled ‘Healthy States, Progressive India‘.

• It was released jointly by NITI Aayog’s Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Amitabh Kant, Additional Secretary Dr Rakesh Sarwal, and World Bank Senior Health Specialist Sheena Chhabra.
• This edition of the report measured and highlighted the overall performance and incremental improvement of states and UTs (Union territories) in health outcomes as well as their overall status over the period 2018–19 (base year) to 2019–20 (Reference year).

Developers:

The report has been prepared by NITI Aayog, with technical assistance from the World Bank (WB), and in close consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

• IPE Global Private Limited worked as the independent Validation agency.

Assessment:

i.This weighted composite index is premised upon 24 indicators grouped under the domains of Health Outcomes, Governance and Information, and Key Inputs/Processes.

ii.The ranking is categorized as Larger States, Smaller States and UTs.

• It has covered 19 Larger States, 8 Smaller States and 7 UTs.
• Three new indicators were added for larger states viz. Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), proportion of pregnant women who received 4 or more antenatal care checkups (ANC), and level of registration of deaths.

iii.Among the Larger States, West Bengal did not participate.

iv.Data for Ladakh was not available as it was established as a UT on October 31, 2019, prior to which it was part of the Jammu and Kashmir state.

v.This edition has not captured the impact of COVID-19 because the time period for this assessment is earlier to the pandemic.

Outcomes:

Overall Performance ranking from 2018-19 to 2019-20

i.Among the Larger States, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana emerged among the best three performers in terms of Overall Performance at 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd rank respectively.

• Uttar Pradesh (UP) ranked at the bottom i.e. 19^th

ii.Among the Smaller States, Mizoram (1^st), Tripura (2^nd), and Sikkim (3^rd) emerged as the best performer in Overall Performance.

• Nagaland ranked 8^th

iii. Among the UTs, DH & DD-Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (1^st), Chandigarh (2^nd), and Lakshadweep (3^rd) are top performers.

• Among UTs, Andaman & Nicobar ranked 7^th.

Categorization on Incremental Performance and Overall Performance

i.Among the Larger States, in terms of annual incremental performance, UP, Assam and Telangana are the top three ranking states with 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd position.

• Karnataka ranked 19^th with least incremental change.

ii.Among Smaller States, Mizoram (1^st), Meghalaya (2^nd), and Nagaland (3^rd) registered the maximum annual incremental progress

• Goa ranked 8^th with least incremental change.

iii.Among UTs, Delhi ranked top which is followed by Jammu and Kashmir-J&K (2^nd), and Lakshadweep (3^rd) showing best incremental performance.

• Chandigarh ranked 7^th with least incremental change.

Key Highlights:

i.For the 4^th consecutive time, Kerala emerged as the best performer in terms of Overall Performance.

ii.Mizoram and Telangana were the only two states that demonstrated strong Overall Performance and showed most improvements.

iii.Rajasthan was the weakest performer both in terms of Overall Performance and Incremental Performance.

• In case of Smaller States, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur as the worst performers, both in terms of Incremental and Overall Performance.

iv.Among overall rankings, Assam made the maximum improvement by moving up 3 ranks (from 15 to 12).

• On the other hand Andaman & Nicobar registered the maximum drop in rank (down from 4th to 7th rank).

v.The gap in the overall performance between the best and the worst performing Larger State and UTs narrowed in the current round of the Health Index, while it increased for the smaller states.

vi.14 out of the 19 Larger States, 4 out of the 8 Smaller States, and 5 out of the 7 UTs showed improvement in Health Index Scores from 2018-19 to 2019-20.

About index:

The index, an annual tool to assess the performance of states and UTs in health sector outcomes is being compiled and published since 2017.

• It aims to nudge states/UTs towards building robust health systems and improving service delivery.

Click here for Official Report

Recent Related News:

i.On September 16, 2021, a report titled ‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’ was released by NITI Aayog’s Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant and Special Secretary Dr K. Rajeswara Rao. As per the report, India is home to 11% of the total global urban population and will surpass China as the most populous country in the world by 2027.

ii.On 15th September 2021, NITI Aayog in partnership with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India launched a campaign named “Shoonya” – an initiative to promote the usage of Zero-pollution delivery vehicles among e-commerce companies, fleet aggregators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and logistics companies.

About NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog:

Established– 2015
Chairperson– Prime Minister of India (Currently- Narendra Modi)
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi