Although Meghalaya is going to the polls tentatively next month it has not made any improvement in national rankings. The State continues to lag behind.
This was revealed in CARE Ratings 2023 which ranked the states into two categories — Group A (large states) and Group B (North East, hilly and small states). The report was released last week.
The rankings are based on seven pillars — economic, fiscal, social, infrastructure, financial inclusion, environment, and governance — and covers 46 indicators to rank the major states in the country. The ranking report attempts to provide a comprehensive quantitative evaluation of states’ performance.
Maharashtra tops the Group A ranking scoring high on social, financial inclusion, and fiscal categories. It is followed by Gujarat with second rank faring well in economic and fiscal categories, while Tamil Nadu ranks third with an edge in social and governance categories.
In Group B, among the eleven North East, Hilly and Small States category, Goa was on top with a score of 62.8 points followed by Sikkim with 49.3 points.
Among the north-eastern states, Sikkim leads due to better scores in economic, social, infrastructure and environment categories. Two other states from the North East – Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh secured the fifth and sixth positions respectively.
However, Meghalaya was in seventh position with a score of 34.8 points.
In the economic category, Meghalaya was in the eight rank. Sikkim was on top while Arunachal Pradesh was in third place.
In fiscal ranking, Meghalaya was placed in the eight rank. In financial inclusion, Meghalaya was in the fourth rank.
In the social category, Meghalaya was in the ninth position. Sikkim is the topper among the north eastern states due to better scores in health, poverty and equality related indicators.
In infrastructure, Meghalaya was in seventh rank. Goa topped the ranking due to better physical infrastructure while Sikkim was at the second spot primarily due to better score for social infrastructure.
In the governance category, Meghalaya was in fifth rank. Uttarakhand topped the ranking while Nagaland bagged the third rank.
In environment ranking for increase in forest cover and best sewage management capacity, Meghalaya was in sixth rank. Goa was on top followed by Sikkim in the second rank. Mizoram was in the fourth rank.
