Assam most improved state in Niti Aayog's health index

GUWAHATI: Assam has emerged as the top state which has made the maximum improvement among larger states in overall performance and is also among the top three most improved states in incremental performance in Niti Aayog’s health index for 2019-20, which was released on Monday.

The report stated, “Among the larger states, only four states improved their Base Year (2018-19) rank in the Reference Year (2019-20). The most significant progress was observed in Assam as it improved its ranking by three positions, from fifteenth to twelfth.”

Assam’s total score has gone up from 43.39 in Base Year (2018-19) to 47.74 in Reference Year (2019-20). Kerala and Tamil Nadu occupy the first and second ranks in the overall performance scores of 82.20 and 72.42 respectively.

Among the smaller states, Mizoram has jumped up by two places to capture the top slot. Meghalaya too has jumped by two places from 7th to 5th while Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh dropped their rank by one place each.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was the health minister when the assessment was carried out, said that efforts have borne the fruits to set new milestones.

He tweeted, “Our efforts to transform Assam into a developed state have started bearing fruits. Proud to share that our state has been recognized as the Most Improved performer in @NITIAayog State Health Index, 2019–20. With people's cooperation & hard work, we'll surely set new milestones.