Policy effectiveness index: Gujarat slips from 11th to 16 slot

NEW DELHI: Is there a policy paralysis at the Centre or states to be blamed? The debate is set to be generated days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls with release of India Public Policy Report, 2014 which measured for the first time state-level performance of policy effectiveness and its impact on growth. Interestingly, the report shows Naredra Modi-led Gujarat slipping down on this policy effectiveness index.

The report, prepared by Rajeev Malhotra, a senior IAS officer and economic advisor to former FM Pranab Mukherjee, has mapped performance of policy effectiveness of 26 states with Gujarat showing a marked decline, dropping from 11th position in 2001 to 16th in 2011.

The top five states on the policy effectiveness index in 2011 are Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa, Punjab and Delhi. At the bottom of the table are Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal.

The report has tracked policy effectiveness in states through four indices it has come out with - rule of law, livelihood opportunity, social opportunity and physical infrastructure development. Except infrastructure development, Gujarat has been found lagging behind on most other parameters.

Releasing the report, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen alluded to the "danger of the state rankings on the policy effectiveness index being hijacked by the political debate" on the eve of the general elections. Sen, who is also member of the 14th finance commission, said the report has made an important contribution to the public policy discourse in the country.

Malhotra, who has vast experience having worked with the plan panel and the UN's human rights commission in Geneva, developed the component indices that are supposes to "reflect human well-being from being able to enjoy livelihood opportunities; a socially meaningful life to security of life and rule of law and amenities for a sustained improvement in living standards".

The analysis undertaken for the period 1981 to 2011 provides evidence for some commonly made observations on India's development process and some other less recognised outcomes. The IPPR finds that at the all-India level there is a gradual, but only a marginal, improvement in policy effectiveness index over the three decades. It is being compromised by a near stagnation in expansion of livelihood opportunities and deterioration in law and order and justice dispensation environment in the country.