Driving Inclusive Development in India: How India’s Aspirational Districts Programme is Transforming Underserved Regions
Driving Inclusive Development in India: How India’s Aspirational Districts Programme is Transforming Underserved Regions
Published on :- November 22nd, 2024
A country’s development is not just measured by its economic progress but it is also a function of its human development, for all its people. India has designed many frameworks and initiatives to mainstream sustainable economic development.
One of the programmes aimed at enabling this was the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ initiative, launched by NITI Aayog, which was designed to improve the socio-economic status of 112 of the most underdeveloped districts out of the 750+ districts in the country. One of the main objectives of this programme was to raise the living standards of its citizens and ensure inclusive growth for all.
In this Data Dialogue, we are focusing on the programme’s impact on the aspirational districts and exploring the CSR funding that has been directed to these areas based on district-level* CSR data.
*70-80% of the CSR amount is not mapped to any district; CSR spend in aspirational districts pertains to the amount that has been mapped to districts.
The Aspirational District Programme (ADP), focuses on strengthening each Aspirational District (AD) and ranks them based on the incremental progress made across 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under five broad socio-economic themes - Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Infrastructure.
ADs are encouraged to catch up with the top-performing districts in their states ("frontier" districts) and then strive to become national leaders by learning from and competing with others, fostering both competitive and cooperative federalism.
At the launch of the Aspirational District Programme (ADP) in March 2018, the overall composite score for all aspirational districts was below 50. However, over the past six years, 91% (~102) of the aspirational districts have moved beyond the composite score of 50.
While the average overall composite score for all Aspirational Districts (ADs) has improved by 54% (Mar 2018- Feb 24), the greatest progress has been in Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, and Healthcare, as these sectors account for 80% of the measurement weightage
All aspirational districts have shown visible improvement in the overall score of which, 60% (~67 Districts) of the aspirational districts have improved by more than 50% in the last six years. Districts like Singrauli (M.P), Mewat (Haryana), Asifabad (Adilabad, Telangana) have consistently improved and their score has more than doubled (from Mar-2018 to Feb-2024).
Another initiative to promote sustainable economic development was the introduction of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Provisions under the Companies Act in 2013.
Since the inception of the CSR law in 2014, a total of ₹4,594 crore has been allocated to the development of aspirational districts, accounting for 2.5% of the total CSR spending from 2014-2023. Over these nine years, on an average ~2% of annual CSR investments has been directed towards the development of ADs. In the last five years, while overall CSR spending in India has grown at a CAGR of 8%, CSR spend in ADs* has increased by five times. The highest level to date was in FY 2022-23 - a spend of ~1.3K crore (4.6% of the total CSR amount) was spent in ADs.
The number of companies supporting CSR initiatives across India also increased steadily, growing by 70% over the past five years. The proportion of companies funding in aspirational districts also grew, from 3.1% in 2018-19 to 6.6% in 2022-23. This growth indicates a rising commitment to social development by the corporate sector, reflecting a commitment to reducing regional inequalities.
Two third (~ 3098 crores) of the CSR spent in ADs was clustered around going into the development of half of the aspirational districts (55 districts) in these seven states - Madhya Pradesh (8), Jharkhand (19), Andhra Pradesh (3), Chhattisgarh (10), Odisha (10), Gujarat (3) and Uttarakhand (2) which comprises half of the aspirational districts while the rest half of the ADs received the remaining 33%.
However, in terms of share in total CSR amount, these seven states collectively receive only 16% of the total CSR funds (~₹1,84,063 crore) spent in the country.
Given the limited data availability at the district level for CSR, the funding that is directly going into the development of aspirational districts appears to be targeted in nature.
While a substantial amount of CSR spend has been distributed in the country, the state wise CSR spending to the aspirational districts is not proportionally distributed based on the % of ADs in the state and the % of population residing in the State's ADs. Most states in the eastern region have a higher concentration of ADs, and a large portion of their populations live in these districts yet funding attributed to them is subjective.
79% of Jharkhand’s districts are identified as aspirational districts with 78% of the state's population living in these areas. Yet only 40% of the mapped CSR funding in Jharkhand has been directed towards its aspirational district development.
Similarly, in Bihar, 1/3rd of the districts are ADs, and 1/3rd of the population resides in these areas, but only 19% of the mapped CSR amount spent in the state of Bihar has been allocated to its aspirational districts development.
While CSR has emerged as a significant source of development finance, this analysis highlights areas where CSR spending might need to be further strengthened to achieve equitable development across India's underserved aspirational districts. With increased investments towards aspirational districts, CSR could become one of the key contributors in advancing the mission of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) to transform the economically backward parts of the country and promote balanced development across the country.
To know more about ADP & ABP and CSR Spend in ADs and districts of ABP, explore our data assets on Aspirational Districts.