Jalandhar leads country in NITI Aayog's Aspirational Blocks Programme
₹ 1.5 crore award money will be spent on development work across various sectors in Jalandhar's Shahkot block, including health, education, nutrition, agriculture and basic infrastructure. (HT)
Deputy commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal presented the district's achievements during a video conference with NITI Aayog officials, detailing the focused interventions made to uplift Shahkot's performance across key parameters.
'This award money will be spent on development work across various sectors in the block, including health, education, nutrition, agriculture and basic infrastructure,' Aggarwal said.
The deputy commissioner attributed this success to a slew of initiatives undertaken in Shahkot over the past few months, which resulted in a marked improvement in performance indicators, making it the top-performing aspirational block in the country (Zone II).
The central government had launched the Aspirational Blocks Programme on January 7, 2023, during the second National Conference of Chief Secretaries. The programme aims to improve governance and enhance the quality of life in India's remotest and underdeveloped blocks, focusing on uplifting them through measurable and sustainable development.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
How India should engage with global indices
One of the key contributions of NITI Aayog has been the development of a range of performance indices — covering innovation, water management, fiscal health, poverty and others — that facilitate cross-state comparisons. These tools have spurred healthy competition among states and helped shape policies, direct investments, and target development assistance. They've also supported greater transparency and accountability in governance. Villagers discuss air pollution in their village in Hasaka countryside, Syria, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman(REUTERS) On the global stage, several international indices — including the Human Development Index (HDI), Social Progress Index (SPI), Global Nutrition Report, World Governance Indicators (WGI), and Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) — serve a similar purpose. When grounded in objective, measurable data, such indices offer valuable insights. However, when they rely on subjective assessments or perceptions, they risk becoming biased or agenda-driven, and countries in the Global South are often at the receiving end. Over the past decade, India has witnessed a decline in several international rankings, particularly in perception-based indices related to democracy, press freedom, and civil liberties. In early 2021 the government formed a committee of secretaries to monitor and review the measures taken across ministries at improving India's performance on key global benchmarks. In November 2022, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) released a report examining the reasons behind India's low rankings in three opinion-based indices: Freedom in the World, the EIU Democracy Index, and the Varieties of Democracy project. By April 2025, media reports indicated that the government was reviewing the methodologies of 28 global indices — including those assessing democracy and hunger — over concerns about flawed assessments. Particular attention was being paid to sample sizes and modelling techniques used for cross-country comparisons. A recurring issue in these indices is their reliance on the opinions of a small group of unnamed experts. For example, the Democracy Index has ranked India at 104, while other countries with questionable recent democratic records have fared significantly better — raising questions about the consistency and contextual understanding of these rankings. Similarly, India was once ranked below Afghanistan in the Press Freedom Index — a finding that many critics viewed as absurd, given the ground realities in both nations. Example of another questionable parameter used by some indices is the extent of direct popular voting. Since India does not have referendums or plebiscites — a feature more common in smaller nations- it receives a low score. Applying such metrics uniformly across vastly different political systems can lead to misleading conclusions, especially when countries like Belarus or Afghanistan appear more democratic on certain isolated parameters than India or the US. In a related development, a Reuters article recently questioned the credibility of India's official unemployment data, citing a perception-based survey of around 50 anonymous economists. The government's pushback focused on the lack of methodological transparency and the potential for bias in interpreting complex economic data through limited, subjective input. While it's tempting to dismiss these rankings as niche academic exercises, their real-world implications are significant. Perception-based indices feed into broader tools like the World Governance Indicators (WGI), which, in turn, influence sovereign credit ratings. Moreover, with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics gaining traction in global finance and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems increasingly trained on these datasets, uncritical adoption of flawed indices could entrench systemic biases. Looking ahead, it is vital for the government to actively engage with institutions that compile global indices and demand the updation of their processes and contextualisation of the parameters. For example, India could encourage the World Bank to demand greater transparency and accountability from think tanks contributing to the WGI. Constructive dialogue — rather than outright dismissal — is key to ensuring fairer evaluations. At the same time, public and private institutions in India — including think tanks and academic bodies — must play a more proactive role. They should develop their own metrics, deepen regional research collaborations, and present alternative frameworks grounded in local realities. A recent milestone in this direction was the October 2024 launch of sovereign credit ratings by CareEdge Global, the first Indian agency to assess global economies. This initiative is a welcome step toward enhancing transparency and offering diverse perspectives in global assessments. Ultimately, shaping global narratives requires more than critique — it calls for credible alternatives. Both the government and civil society must invest in building India's intellectual and analytical capacity to ensure that our story is told with accuracy, fairness, and nuance. The article is authored by Priyal Bhardwaj, founder, Sangini Saheli and general secretary, women's wing, BJP, New Delhi.
The Print
13 hours ago
- The Print
I've changed my mind on ethanol blending. It's a win India can't afford to slow down
I will admit that my views on ethanol blending have evolved over the past three years. While I still believe certain issues need to be addressed—such as pricing and availability—overall, ethanol blending and even Compressed Biogas (CBG) are essential for India's energy security, especially since we still import over 85 percent of our crude oil and just under 60 percent of our natural gas requirements. However, many social media users have raised concerns about ethanol blending, including reduced fuel economy and potential engine damage. In a post on X, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas shared a 2022 column of mine on the subject for context. Today is World Biofuels Day, and over the past week there has been a lot of discussion on social media about biofuels, particularly ethanol. This renewed interest follows Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's announcement that India has achieved its ethanol blending target of 20 percent, known as E20 petrol, five years ahead of schedule. Anti-ethanol arguments 'rubbish' A couple of days ago, I shared a stage with Puri and interacted with multiple stakeholders in the ethanol ecosystem, including automakers, distillers, and think-tank experts, at an event marking World Biofuels Day. One long-standing criticism of ethanol is that it comes from water-intensive crops such as sugarcane. Puri, who once served as India's ambassador to Brazil—the pioneer in ethanol blending—pointed out that this is not a problem for Brazil because it has a vast land area and over 22 percent of the world's freshwater resources. 'But the fact is,' Puri told me, 'that as ethanol production has grown in India, most ethanol now comes not from sugarcane juice but from by-products of sugarcane processing such as B-heavy and C-heavy molasses. In addition, we use broken, damaged, and surplus foodgrain.' The minister added that second-generation ethanol production from products like bamboo is already taking place in Assam, and new start-ups are exploring ways to convert seaweed into ethanol. 'So, the arguments around food security and water wastage are utterly rubbish. Also, we were producing surplus foodgrain and using Indian taxpayer money to subsidise exports of products like sugar. That is not happening now. A bulk of the savings from reduced crude oil imports is now being transferred to Indian farmers, who have gone from being annadatas to urjadatas.' Car damage, fuel efficiency? What about concerns over vehicle damage and reduced fuel efficiency? Most carmakers are clear that all cars sold in India, including imported luxury and performance models, are tuned to accept E20 fuel. The loss in fuel efficiency, despite ethanol's lower energy density compared to petrol, is around 1–2 percent, as backed by a 2021 NITI Aayog expert committee report. However, older vehicles—especially those sold before ethanol blending gained momentum under the Narendra Modi government—may see a 5–7 percent drop in efficiency and potentially corrosive damage to plastic and rubber parts. Puri said these concerns are overstated and often the result of lobbying. While Puri did not say the government plans to increase ethanol blending beyond E20 at petrol pumps, he noted that pure ethanol (E100) is now available at 400 petrol stations across the country (out of around 88,000). However, most modern petrol-tuned vehicles cannot run on blends higher than E20 without significant modifications to become 'flex-fuel' vehicles, as in Brazil, where cars can operate on a wide range of blends. The Petroleum Ministry is subtly promoting the idea of India's energy independence through biofuels, and as more E20-capable cars enter the fleet and older vehicles are scrapped, ethanol blending issues will gradually dissipate. A senior auto industry executive told me the ideal scenario for India would be a 'baseline' of E20 petrol, with consumers free to choose higher or lower blends. 'If there is some differential pricing to account for the lower calorific value of ethanol, this will help in adoption. In heavy urban traffic, fuel economy losses will be marginal, and with strong or plug-in hybrid flex-fuel vehicles, losses would dissipate completely.' Beyond biofuels—CBG, CNG But biofuels go far beyond ethanol. The government's big push now is for Compressed Biogas (CBG), which will be blended into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Unlike ethanol, CBG and CNG are chemically identical. The target is for CBG to make up 4 percent of CNG by 2030. 'India has a huge amount of biomass, and it makes sense to use it for energy production. India's energy needs are increasing dramatically year-on-year, and we should be using this to make energy,' Vibha Dhawan, Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), told me. In fact, according to a presentation by Maruti Suzuki, CBG—if properly accounted for—actually removes carbon from the atmosphere, since rotting biomass would otherwise release methane, a deadlier greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Capturing and burning it as vehicle fuel is a win-win, although Dhawan acknowledged there are still scalability issues and questions about how to handle the by-products. Maruti Suzuki is working with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to find solutions, and CBG is likely to make headlines in the coming months. The biofuels story doesn't end there. Puri also revealed that the IndianOil refinery in Panipat can now process used cooking oil to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). 'Going forward, more and more planes will run on a blend of SAF and conventional aviation fuel. This is a far more ecological use of used cooking oil,' Puri said. Kushan Mitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. He tweets @kushanmitra. Views are personal. (Edited by Prashant)
Economic Times
a day ago
- Economic Times
Niti Aayog withdraws paper on GM crop imports, signals govt's hard line on biosafety
The Niti Aayog has withdrawn a working paper that proposed allowing imports of genetically modified (GM) soybean and corn from the United States, signalling the government's firm position against opening India's market to transgenic food products over biosafety concerns, as per move comes despite US pressure in trade talks to ease what it sees as a non-tariff barrier, and despite Niti Aayog's own assessment that such imports could be allowed without harming domestic paper, Promoting India-US agricultural trade under the new US trade regime, was released in May and co-authored by Ramesh Chand, a Niti Aayog member, and senior adviser Raka Saxena. It suggested that GM corn could be imported for ethanol blending and for by-products such as Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles. 'US corn is cheaper and can be used to meet India's biofuel targets without disrupting local food and feed markets,' the authors the paper carried a disclaimer that the views were personal, its removal from the think tank's website reflects the government's reluctance to shift policy on GM food crops. At present, India permits commercial cultivation of only one GM crop — transgenic cotton, which is a non-food commodity. The government's position aligns with the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has consistently opposed both the cultivation and import of GM food products. The SJM has, in the past, found common cause with several left-leaning farm groups on this issue. The withdrawn paper had also suggested a 'dual-track' approach to agricultural trade negotiations with the US, pushing for selective imports of non-sensitive items that do not compete with local production, such as almonds, pistachios, and enjoys a surplus in agricultural trade with the US, a gap that has widened over the years. Between 2004 and 2024, India's farm exports to the US grew nearly fivefold, from $1.18 billion to $5.75 billion. Imports from the US rose faster, from $291 million to $2.22 billion over the same period.
