2 Odisha Districts Among Five Most-Improved In India

Bhubaneswar: Two districts of Odisha have found a place among the top five most-improved in the country in the second Delta Ranking of Aspirational Districts by the Niti Aayog.

According to the Aspirational Districts list which was released by the CEO of the NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, on Thursday, Nuapada and Koraput districts rank second and fifth respectively.

While Virudhnagar district of Tamil Nadu topped the list, Siddharthnagar district of Uttara Pradesh and Aurangabad district of Bihar secured third and fourth rank respectively.

The Delta ranking for the Aspirational Districts measures the incremental progress made by them between June 1, 2018, and October 31, 2018, across six developmental areas of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development and basic infrastructure.

The Aspirational District Programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 5, 2018.

The objective of the programme is to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and emerged as pockets of under-development, thereby posing a challenge to ensure balanced regional development.

The first Delta ranking for the Aspirational Districts was released in June 2018.