Aspirational Districts Programme

Launched in January 2018, the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is one of the largest experiments on outcomes-focused governance in the world.
Spread across 115 of India’s socio-economically challenged districts, the ADP is Niti Aayog’s flagship initiative to improve health, nutrition, education, and economic outcomes.

The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a spirit of mass Movement.
With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

115 districts were identified from 28 states using a composite index of key data sets that included deprivation enumerated under the Socio-Economic Caste Census, key health and education sector performance and state of basic infrastructure.

NITI Aayog anchors the programme with support from Central Ministries and the State Governments.
While NITI Aayog is steering the initiative in 30 districts, various central ministries oversee 50 districts besides the Ministry of Home Affairs, which focuses on 35 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts.
Officers at the level of Joint Secretary / Additional Secretary have been nominated to become the ‘Central Prabhari Officers’ of each district.
States have appointed state-nodal and Prabhari officers.
An Empowered Committee under the Convenorship of the CEO, NITI Aayog will help in the convergence of various government schemes and streamlining of efforts.

To enable optimum utilization of their potential, this program focuses closely on improving people’s ability to participate fully in the vibrant economy.
Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure are this programme’s core areas of focus.

The objective of the program is to monitor the real-time progress of aspirational districts based on 49 indicators (81 data-points) from the 5 identified thematic areas.
Districts are aspiring to first catch-up with the best district within their State, and subsequently aspire to become one of the best in the country, by competing with, and learning from others in the spirit of competitive & cooperative federalism.

Recently, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Nitin Gadkari emphasised upon improving MSME footprint in 115 aspirational districts.
He said, their contribution to GDP is presently negligible, but if focused attention is given to them, they can uplift the employment scene in a big way.

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