Gujarat CM Bhupendrabhai Patel to release State’s First “District Good Governance Index”

New Delhi (20/05/2023): Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendrabhai Patel will release Gujarat’s First “District Good Governance Index”, of Gujarat, prepared by Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Govt. of India in collaboration with Government of Gujarat with Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad as the knowledge partner, in the valedictory Session of the three day ‘10^th Chintan Shibir’ – a brainstorming session for senior and junior government officials of Gujarat – at Kevadia in Narmada district of Gujarat on 21^st May, 2023.

Gujarat stood first in the GGI 2021 with an incremental growth of 12.3% over GGI 2019. The DGGI represents a deeper study of the Gujarat Model of Governance documenting the success stories of Gujarat that could be adopted by other Districts of the country. In the years 2019-2023, Gujarat’s districts and State organisations were recipients of 4 Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration {(i) Mahesana for Swachch Bharat Mission (Gramin)-2020; (ii) Vidya Samiksha Kendra of Education Department – 2021 under Innovation State category; (iii) State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO)-2022 under Innovation State category ; (iv) Mahesana for Samagra Shiksha -2022} and four National e-Gov Awards.

Hon’ble Chief Minister Gujarat, Bhupendrabhai Patel guided the formulation of DGGI Gujarat. Raj Kumar, Chief Secretary, Gujarat worked closely with V. Srinivas, Secretary, DARPG and NBS Rajput, Joint Secretary, DARPG to enable the conceptualization and formulation of an index that measures the diversity of governance model in Gujarat.  The stakeholders consultations necessitated 12 rounds of meetings at Govt. of India level including meetings with Chief Secretary Gujarat, Secretary AR amongst others, which were coordinated by CGG, Hyderabad.

The DGGI represents Next Generation Administrative Reform in Benchmarking Governance at District level.  The Index benchmarks governance in all the 33 Districts of Gujarat on 126 data points under 65 indicators spread across 10 sectors. It is a uniform tool across Districts of Gujarat to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the Central and State Governments.   It is expected to provide guidance to the State as well as the District administration in their efforts to address existing gaps, plan to bridge these gaps and aid as decision making tool. The rankings will bring healthy competition amongst districts in their quest to provide citizen centric administration and governance.

Some of the key highlights of the DGGI Gujarat are:

• All 33 Districts have reported positive growth in milk production & more than 2/3^rd of Districts have reported positive growth in foodgrain and horticulture production.
• All the Districts have reported cropping intensity of more than 100%.
• 22 Districts reported composite score of more than 90 in District Level Facilitation Committee (DLFC) Index.
• 29 Districts have reported positive growth in Industrial production.
• Ahmedabad, Vadodra and Surat Districts are the leading Districts of Gujarat in terms of number of Start-ups.
• Navsari District has reported highest transition rate from Upper Primary to Secondary.
• All the Districts of the State have reported trained percentage of more than 90% at ITIs.
• Total 25 Districts have reported placement ratio of more than 60% of total registrations at Employment Exchanges.
• 27 Districts have more than 80% operational Health & Wellness Centers.
• 31 Districts have reported more than 85% of institutional deliveries.
• Ahmedabad District has reported highest per capita income from own sources of ULBs and GPs.
• Gandhinagar, Surat and Bharuch Districts have reported the highest percentage of construction of houses sanctioned for construction under PMAY- Grameen and Urban.
• All the 33 Districts have reported percentage of Aadhaar seeded ration cards of more than 99%.
• 25 Districts have reported percentage of Mid-Day Meal of more than 95% of students.
• 29 Districts have reported more than 85% of water sample meeting the quality standards.
•  Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Jamnagar Districts have reported the lowest number of days taken for filing the charge-sheets in IPC crimes.
• Total nine districts have reported 100% grievance redressal registered at Swagat portal.

The Prime Minister has said “When there is people centric governance, when there is development oriented governance, it not only solves the problems, but also gives better results. There is accountability towards the public in good governance. If one district performs well in the same state and the other does not, then the real reason behind this is the difference in good governance.”

Over the past several years, DARPG successfully initiated next generation reforms in bench-marking governance by releasing Good Governance Index 2019, Good Governance Index 2021, NeSDA 2019, NeSDA 2021, DGGI Jammu & Kashmir and now DGGI Gujarat.

Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in his message said “The publication of first ever DGGI Gujarat is a landmark achievement. District being the basic unit of administrative system, are a pivotal point of contact between citizens and administration. They act as a catalyst for development, welfare of marginalized sections of the society and overall well-being of citizens. Therefore, their performance must be measured to attest development and bring a competitive spirit amongst themselves. DGGI will enable each of the 33 Districts of Gujarat to rise to the level of the best administered districts of the country”.

On this occasion, DARPG thanks each of the officials who have enabled scripting this document and taking the Nation’s Governance model of “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government” forward.