NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant lauds UP for highest incremental progress in health index

New Delhi [India], December 27 (ANI): NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Monday congratulated the government and people of Uttar Pradesh with respect to the fourth edition of the State Health Index and stated that the health system in the state has undergone lots of improvement in the last 2-3 years.
NITI Aayog on Monday released the fourth edition of "The Healthy States, Progressive India" ranking States based on the progress on health outcomes and health systems performance across the country.
Among the 'Larger States', in terms of annual incremental performance, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Telangana are the top three ranking states.
Speaking to ANI, the NITI Aayog CEO said, "We rank small states, large states and the Union Territories (UTs) separately. Uttar Pradesh has shown the best improvement in the last two years, so UP ranks number one in delta improved ranking. Assam ranks second and Telangana third.
"Amongst the small states, Mizoram and Meghalaya have done improvement. Amongst Union Territories, it is Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir which have shown the big jump in health infrastructure," Kant said.
"UP has made the biggest improvements in all the health issues like infant mortality, maternal mortality, sex ratio, birth governances issues and the number of medical colleges," he told ANI.
"I want to congratulate Uttar Pradesh. The state has been improving in the health index in the last 2-3 years," he added.
On overall ranking based on the composite index score in 2019-20, the top-ranking states were Kerala and Tamil Nadu among the 'Larger States', Mizoram and Tripura among the 'Smaller States', and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Chandigarh among the UTs.
The State Health Index is an annual tool to assess the performance of states and UTs. It is a weighted composite index based on 24 indicators grouped under the domains of 'Health Outcomes', 'Governance and Information', and 'Key Inputs/Processes'. Each domain has been assigned weights based on its importance with higher scores for outcome indicators.
The report was released jointly by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant, Additional Secretary Dr Rakesh Sarwal, and World Bank Senior Health Specialist Sheena Chhabra. The report has been developed by NITI Aayog, with technical assistance from the World Bank, and in close consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). (ANI)