DRIVEN TO SUCCEED
Tamil Nadu tops the chart, and Assam is fast catching up. As the best states are awarded for their performance, chief ministers and their cabinet colleagues gather at the India Today State of the States Conclave
Chief ministers and their cabinet colleagues gathered at the India Today State of the States Conclave as the best states were recognised for their performance
India is growing at a fast pace, yet we must not forget that 20 per cent of the country’s population lives below the poverty line and 20 per cent of them are illiterate. These are the challenges before India today and can be tackled with development as the agenda and reform as the process,” Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said at the india today State of the States Conclave held in New Delhi on November 22.
The vice president also gave away the awards to the chief ministers of the best performing and most improved states. In an appeal to political leaders, Naidu said that all parties must work together for the development of the country. “They are not enemies, they are political rivals. Despite political and ideological differences, the Centre and the state must cooperate and work together for a developed and prosperous India,” he said.
Recounting his visits abroad in the past one year, Naidu
said India’s growth story has been globally well-recognised. The need of the hour, he said, was to decentralise the development process by encouraging local self-governments, for which he offered the ‘3Fs’ formula. “We must empower the local bodies and to do that, we must provide them with funds, functions and functionaries. The local bodies execute development projects at the grassroots level,” he said.
Naidu also criticised short-term solutions such as loan waivers and free power to tackle the agrarian crisis, cautioning political leaders against these. “Freebies can make you popular, but they will make the state a pauper. The farmers need assured 24x7 power, not free power,” he said. Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure as the chief minister of Gujarat, he said he never offered free power, yet returned to power three times in the state.
The vice president was also all praise for india today’s State of the States initiative, and appealed to the media to promote stories of development such as Sikkim’s success in organic farming to inspire farmers in other states. He lamented that development had vanished from media’s agenda though “stories of development are spicier”. “Views are shown as news, this must stop,” he added. Known for his witty one-liners, Naidu also offered a piece of advice to those seeking success in public life. “If you have glamour, grammar and humour, there won’t be any scope for rumour,” he said, adding that just one of these three attributes would not suffice. “You need to have a combination of all three.”
Four award-winning chief ministers—Tamil Nadu’s Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Assam’s Sarbananda Sonowal, Gujarat’s Vijay Rupani and Puducherry’s V. Narayanasamy—also shared their mantra of development. There were stories of Assam’s vegetable selling directly in Dubai and London, and Kutch emerging as Gujarat’s answer to Singapore. The conclave hosted as many as 16 ministers from different award-winning states and more than a dozen bureaucrats.
Palaniswami, Tamil Nadu’s 64-year-old CM, revealed the “rare” development model of the state that was found to be the overall best performing state: “Business-friendly, even as [it] ensures that adequate attention and funds are provided for welfare.” Tamil Nadu’s welfare schemes, he said, “serve a specific need”, pointing out that the laptop scheme has “reduced the digital divide” in the state. “Some believe that Tamil Nadu’s welfare schemes are populist in nature. In reality, these schemes are popular,” he said. The CM described how the welfare programmes pioneered in Tamil Nadu were adopted as national models and also appreciated by international agencies. “These are visionary and multi-dimensional schemes
“FREEBIES CAN MAKE YOU POPULAR BUT WILL LEAVE THE STATE A PAUPER,” VICE PRESIDENT NAIDU TOLD POLITICAL LEADERS
having a direct impact on lowering the poverty level,” Palaniswami said, while outlining Tamil Nadu’s progress and achievements on a variety of fronts, including an “innovation-based” economy that’s home to “one of the best-educated and skilled workforces in the country”.
For Assam’s rapid growth in recent times, CM Sonowal thanked PM Modi’s “unparalleled political will”. Assam, he claimed, was India’s fifth most prosperous state at the time of Independence, but neglect by previous governments forced its economy to go “topsy-turvy” in the past seven decades, leading to a fall in social and economic indicators. Now, Sonowal said, Modi has “laid special emphasis” on improving transport and telecom connectivity to and within the Northeast. Modi has personally visited the region around 30 times in the past four-and-a-half years, and sent his ministers and officers at regular intervals, he said. “The PM has personally monitored the implementation of important infrastructure projects,” Sonowal said. He described the Act East policy as “a boon” that would improve trade, tourism and investment in the Northeast, and bring the region to “the centre of our relations with Southeast Asia”.
Echoing Sonowal, his Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani also said that Modi showed the state the way to development, and the present government was merely following it. “The earthquake that hit Kutch in 2001 almost destroyed the entire state. We thought the state would go back 20 years in terms of growth and development. But the people of Gujarat displayed courage, and we emerged out of it. Gir kar uthna hamari taaqat rahi hai (to stand up after falling down has been our strength),” he said. “The then CM Modi led the way. He showed the path, which we are following to this day. He faced so many challenges, yet he
strived. The people strived and made the state what it is today,” he added. Outlining the future roadmap for Gujarat, Rupani said, “We are moving ahead with a vision. That’s why, despite challenges, we have excelled in attracting investments, exports, and building infrastructure. Ours is an inclusive culture, an inclusive economy, and we are proud of it.”
According to Puducherry CM V. Narayanasamy, small is beautiful and the state has made huge strides in every field of development. Taking a dig at Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, with whom he’s been at loggerheads, he said, “People ask me how I manage. I tell them that I got training in the prime minister’s office. Some people want development. Some people want destruction. You have to handle both.”
Narayanasamy also mentioned the toxic air in the national capital. “Delhi is suffering due to air pollution. Our state has pure air because we have non-polluting industries,” he said. The CM outlined how the region has developed the most in terms of education. “We achieved 100 per cent literacy 15 years ago. We have 18 engineering colleges, eight medical colleges and several other important institutes,” he added.
The india today State of the States study was first launched in 2003. It’s a one-of-its-kind evaluation process of Indian states, and has now come to be regarded as the final word on the social, economic and ecological health of the states. Based on objective data sourced from government and other authentic sources, the study aims to assess the performance of states across multiple categories.
The 2018 study was conducted by leading research agency Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA). The 31 states were segregated as big and small based on population and geography. States with a geographical area of over 35,000 sq km and population of more than 5 million were categorised as big while the rest were clubbed as small. The states are ranked in two segments—the best performing and the most improved. In the best performing category, the latest performance of a state—specific to a category and based on recent data—is examined. In the most improved category, the improvements of a state during the past five years—on outcome-based positive changes—are examined. The performances of the states are examined under 13 categories—overall, economy, infrastructure, agriculture, education, health, law and order, governance, inclusive development, entrepreneurship, environment, cleanliness and tourism.