Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) UPSC

Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP)

• Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) was launched by the GOI in January 2018 to accelerate improvement in the socio-economic indicators of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.

• Currently, the programme has been implemented in 112 of India’s 739 districts including 35 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected regions spread across the country. 

• The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is driven by the following ideas that signal a shift in the approach of the government towards policy and governance: 

• Moving Beyond Economic Measures of Success .
• Enabling Equitable Regional Development .
• Driving Change through Cooperative and Competitive Federalism.

• The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) focuses on practical and measurable social progress outcomes, in six main themes that directly impact the quality of life as well as the economic productivity of citizens. These are- Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure. These are further broken down into 49 indicators. 

• The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is based on three core principles, which are encapsulated in the 3Cs Approach– Convergence (among State and Central Government initiatives at the district level), Collaboration (among citizens and functionaries of Central & State Governments including district teams), and Competition (among districts).

Basic Structure of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) : 

• At the Central level, NITI Aayog is anchoring the programme and individual Ministries have assumed responsibilities to drive the progress of the districts. 
• The state governments are the main drivers of change. Each state has formed a committee under their respective Chief Secretaries to implement as well as track the programme. 
• For each district, a central Prabhari Officer of the rank of Additional Secretary/ Joint Secretary has been appointed to provide feedback and recommendations based on their local level findings. 

• Under the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), NITI Aayog releases Delta Ranking that ranks districts based on the monthly improvement achieved in the six focus areas through the Champions of Change dashboard (an online Dashboard).