Kerala has displayed the qualities to be a best-class state for yet another time as it has become the best state in India in the NITI Aayog's ranking for 2020-21. NITI Aayog's Sustainable Development Goals India Index 2020-21 was released on Thursday in which Kerala was ranked top of the table as the best in India while the state of Bihar being the worst. 

The NITI Aayog, the succeeding body of the Central Planning Commission, is a public policy think tank of the Indian government established with the aim of achieving sustainable development goals with cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of state governments of India in the economic policy-making process. The Index for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) evaluates the progress of states and union territories on social, economic, and environmental parameters. 

Each year, NITI Aayog will release the index with ranking the states based on their progress in the parameters. The third rendition of India's SDG Index was launched by NITI Aayog's Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Thursday. The rankings of the states are derived based on the state's performances and governance in public health, the safety of women, poverty alleviation, clean water and sanitation, and affordable and clean energy. 

According to the Index, Kerala is the best state in India during 2020-21 with a score of 75 as it has been doing best in these areas. Following Kerala, both Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh are ranked at the second spot with a score of 74. The index has declared Bihar as the worst state in India with a score of 52. The states of Jharkhand and Assam are ahead of Bihar with 56 and 57 points respectively.

On the front of Union Territories, Chandigarh has retained the top ranking in the index with a score of 79 followed by Delhi, which had scored 68. The states like Mizoram, Haryana, and Uttarakhand are the top gainers in 2020-21 in terms of improvement in score from 2019, with an increase of 12,10, and 8 points respectively.  

According to reports, the country's overall SDG score improved by 6 points from 60 in 2019 to 66 in 2020-21. The significant surge was made possible with the remarkable performances in the sustainable goals of clean water and sanitation and affordable and clean energy.  While the BJP ruling states of Assam and Uttar Pradesh were at the sign of much-needed improvement, the BJP ruling state of Gujarat was spelt to be good at public health. 

Rajiv Kumar said, "Our effort of monitoring SDGs through the index and dashboard continues to be widely noticed and applauded around the world. It remains a rare data-driven initiative to rank our states and union territories by computing a composite index on the SDGs." NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, "The report reflects on the partnerships we have built and strengthened during our SDG efforts. The narrative throws light on how collaborative initiatives can result in better outcomes and greater impacts."

The index was first launched in December 2018 and it has become the primary tool for monitoring progress on the SDGs in the country and has simultaneously fostered competition among the states and union territories by ranking them on the global goals and the sustainable development goals have 17 goals and 169 related targets to be achieved by 2030. 

The reports say that the index is developed in collaboration with the United Nations in India and it measures the progress at the national and sub-national level in the country's journey towards meeting the global goals and targets and has been successful as an advocacy tool to propagate the messages of sustainability, resilience, and partnerships. It must be noted that Kerala was India's best state in last year's ranking.