HOW THE DISTRICTS WERE RANKED

The India Today State of the State— Assam study was conducted by Nielsen, a globally-reputed measurement and data analytics company, to find the bestperforming and most-improved districts of the state. The following steps were taken to conduct the study:

➘ Collection of data:

The data was collected from various secondary sources that are available in the public domain, such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health Mission

➘ Determination of categories and parameters:

It was decided to rank the districts across 12 categories. Multiple parameters were considered in consultation with domain experts to evaluate the performance of the districts in each category

➘ Normalisation of data:

Once the categories were finalised, the data was normalised to arrive at a meaningful comparison across the districts. Depending on the parameter, the data was normalised based on population/ GSDP/ other factors

➘ Rankings:

Every parameter in each category was ranked according to the Borda method. The ranking is based on the parameter under consideration—a higher concentration of households with electricity got a higher rank, while a higher incidence of crime got a lower rank

➘ Indexation:

The ranks of the parameters were combined to form a category index

➘ Identification of top districts:

Once the districts were ranked, the top districts were identified. The most recent year was used to rank the best district, whereas the difference between the most recent parameter value and the parameter value 10 years prior was used to rank the most-improved district. However, in certain parameters, due to unavailability of data, the most-improved district was ranked based on the difference in either five or six year, instead of 10 years. For instance, the best district in agriculture was ranked based on the year 2017-18, whereas the most-improved district was ranked based on the difference between 2011-12 and 2017-18