By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 1, 2018: The Country’s policy think tank National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has put the tribal dominated Malkangiri district at topmost rank in Odisha for making most number of improvements amongst all aspirational districts.

The Centre had selected eight districts namely Rayagada, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Dhenkanal, Balangir, Koraput and Malkangiri from the state among the aspirational districts in the country an dranked on the basis of incremental development from Mar 31-May 31, 2018 .

Niti Aayog has launched the first Delta ranking (incremental progress) for the Aspirational Districts, based on self-reported data of districts during the period. The data is being measured across five developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.

Malkangiri has shown most improvement amongst all aspirational districts from Odisha and is rank 1. With an improvement of delta 8.1, it is ranked 27th in India. It is worth noting that Malkangiri is amongst the top most improved districts in the field of agriculture with an all India rank 3, officials said.

Kalahandi district ranked 1 in ‘agriculture’ among 108 ‘aspirational while Nabarangpur district ranked first in financial inclusion Aspirational Districts. Nabarangpur district of Odisha also ranked last in health and nutrition sector among 108 district and Gajapati district added in the category of least improved district (rank-105).

The aspirational districts programme, through real-time monitoring and proactive course corrections, reinforces the mechanisms of cooperative and competitive federalism between the Centre and the states, down to the districts, said a statement from the think tank.