NITI AAYOG LAUNCHES THE STATE ENERGY & CLIMATE INDEX (SECI)-ROUND 1.

Why in news?

• SECI’s objective is to develop healthy competition among the states to perform better and provide quality energy services to users in their states.
  • The index is based on 2019-20 data.
  • The states have been categorized based on size and geographical differences as larger states, smaller states, and UTs.
• Index ranks the states’ performance on 6 parameters-
  • Discom performance
  • Access, acessibility and reliability of eergy
  • Clean energy inititatives
  • Energy efficiency
  • Environmental sustainability
  • New initiatives

Key findings

• Gujarat, Kerala (access, affordability and reliability category), and Punjab (discom performance) have been ranked as top performers in larger states category.
• In smaller states category, Goa, Tripura and Manipur emerged as top-performing states.
• Among UTs top performers are Chandigarh, Delhi, and Daman & Diu/Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Significance of the index

• Can be used by the states and UTs to benchmark their performance against their peers,
• Analyse the potential challenges to develop better policy mechanisms, and
• Efficiently manage their energy resources.

Recommendations made

• Best practices for all indicators in better-performing states can be adopted by other states to improve their performance.
• Data updation and validation need to be a priority of state governments going forward to help them design better policies.