‘Healthy States, Progressive India’ report released by the NITI Aayog

Healthy States, Progressive India

Question- On 9th February, 2018, the NITI Aayog released a comprehensive health index report titled ‘Healthy States, Progressive India’. According to the report, which of the following states has been given top position in the overall levels of performance of big States?
(a) Punjab
(b) Kerala
(c) Tamil Nadu
(d) Karnataka
Answer: (b)
Related Facts:

  • On 9th February, 2018, the NITI Aayog released a comprehensive health index report titled ‘Healthy States, Progressive India’.
  • In this report, states and Union Territories have been kept in different categories on the basis of annual progress on health front and overall performance compared to each other.
  • The States are categorized on the basis of incremental Index score range: ‘Not Improved’ (incremental Index score<=0), ‘Least Improved’ (incremental Index score between 0.01 and 2), ‘Moderately Improved’ (incremental Index score between 2.01 and 4), ‘Most Improved’ (incremental Index score>4.0)
  • This report was jointly released by the Chief Executive Officer of the NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Preeti Sudan and Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director of world bank.
  • Technical Assistance to NITI Aayog was provided through the entire duration by The World Bank, along with authorship of this report.
  • The report states that States and Union Territories have been kept in three categories of larger, smaller and union territories.
  • The Health Index is a weighted composite index, which has three indicators of three different categories (domain) (a) health results (70 percent) (b) governance and information on major states and (c) major inputs and processes (18 percent) is based.
  • Kerala ranks on top in terms of overall performance.
  • Kerala is at the bottom in terms of incremental progress mainly as it had already achieved a low level of Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) and Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) and replacement level fertility, leaving limited space for any further improvements.
  • Kerala is followed by Punjab and Tamil Nadu as second and third respectively.
  • While Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh have been ranked in the top three states in terms of progress at the annual level.
  • Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh showed the maximum gains in improvement of health outcomes from base to reference year in indicators such as NMR, U5MR, full immunization coverage, institutional deliveries, and people living with HIV (PLHIV) on antiretroviral therapy (ART).
  • Among Smaller States, Mizoram (73.70) followed by Manipur (57.78) are the best overall performers.
  • In annual incremental performance, Manipur (up 7.18 points) and Goa (up 6.67 points) ranked the highest.
  • In the health sector and with overall performance, Lakshadweep’s performance in the Union Territories has been the best in case of the highest progress at the annual level.
  • The linking of the Health Index with incentives under the National Health Mission by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare underlines the importance of such an exercise. It re-emphasizes the move towards performance based financing for better outcomes.
  • The average number of days taken by the State to transfer money to the implementation agency ranged between 0 (Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep) and 287 (Telangana) days.

Reference:
http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Healthy-States-Progressive-India-Report.pdf