NITI Aayog announces 5 most improved aspirational districts in Agriculture,Water Resources sector.

Why in news?

• NITI Aayog has announced the five most improved aspirational districts in the Agriculture and Water Resources sector for December 2021. Malkangiri in Odisha tops the list.
• It is followed by Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh and Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir. Ramgarh in Jharkhand and Begusarai in Bihar also feature in the list. This is as per NITI Aayog’s Delta Rankings.

About Aspirational District Programme

• 115 districts from across 28 states have been chosen. They constitute about 20% of the population of India and cover about 8,600-gram Panchayats.
• The progress under the programme is tracked through the data collected on a real-time basis. A dashboard has been created by the NITI Ayog to track the real-time progress. This, in turn, enhances accountability and transparency.
• Statistics have been collected on 49 indicators on 5 core dimensions (education, financial inclusion, agriculture and water resources, skill development and basic infrastructure) in order to provide an initial benchmark for the programme.
• The focus, under the programme, is on the socio-economic outputs.
• The programme is a positive shift towards cooperative federalism, as the districts and the states have a greater voice in their development.
• The broad strategy of the programme follows 3Cs: Convergence, Collaboration, Competition