9. India's Own Domestic Indices (NITI Aayog & Ministries)
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Alongside the global indices above, India runs an extensive parallel system of its own domestic indices — almost always ranking Indian states, UTs, or districts against each other rather than ranking countries — mostly built and released by NITI Aayog under its "competitive and cooperative federalism" mandate, plus a handful from specific ministries. These are a fast-growing and increasingly favourite current-affairs category precisely because they are new enough that most revision material hasn't caught up, and because they are so easily confused with their global-index namesakes.
| Index | Publisher | Frequency | What It Measures | Notable Recent Fact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDG India Index | NITI Aayog | Roughly annual/biennial | Tracks India's states and UTs against the UN's own 17 Sustainable Development Goals, using domestically available data, sorting states into "Aspirant," "Performer," "Front Runner," and "Achiever" bands | Kerala retained the top rank in the 2023-24 edition, with several North-Eastern states newly entering the "Front Runner" category for the first time |
| National Multidimensional Poverty Index (National MPI) | NITI Aayog | Periodic | India's own adaptation of the global MPI framework (see Section 2) to Indian household data (drawn from the National Family Health Survey) | Showed the poverty headcount ratio falling from ~24.85% (2015-16) to ~11.28% (2019-21) — the source of the widely quoted "hundreds of millions exited poverty" claim |
| India Innovation Index | NITI Aayog (Institute for Competitiveness as knowledge partner) | Annually | Ranks Indian states/UTs on innovation capability and output, explicitly modelled on the Global Innovation Index's input-output framework | A domestic mirror of GII (Section 6) — do not cite its state-level figures as if they were India's national GII rank |
| State Health Index | NITI Aayog (with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the World Bank) | Roughly annual | Ranks states on health outcomes, governance, and processes, split into "Larger States," "Smaller States," and "UTs" categories to keep comparisons fair | Used to incentivise state-level health-system performance under a "competitive federalism" framework |
| School Education Quality Index (SEQI) | NITI Aayog (with the Ministry of Education) | Periodic | Ranks states/UTs on school-education outcomes and governance, across "outcomes" and "governance & management" domains | Explicitly designed to nudge states toward measurable learning-outcome improvements rather than input spending alone |
| Export Preparedness Index (EPI) | NITI Aayog (with the Institute of Competitiveness) | Roughly annual | Ranks states on export readiness across policy, business ecosystem, export ecosystem, and export performance pillars | Coastal states with established ports and industrial bases have typically dominated the top ranks in recent editions |
| Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) | NITI Aayog | Periodic | Ranks states on water-resource management performance — source augmentation, major/medium irrigation, watershed development, groundwater, and more | Explicitly framed as a response to India's water-stress concerns, feeding into the Jal Shakti Abhiyan and related schemes |
| Ease of Living Index (EoLI) | Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) | Periodic (2018 and 2020 editions so far) | Ranks Indian cities on quality of life, economic ability, and sustainability | Bengaluru topped the "Million-Plus" city category in the 2020 edition, with Pune and Ahmedabad close behind |
| Municipal Performance Index (MPI, India) | MoHUA | Released alongside EoLI (2020 edition) | Ranks Indian city municipal bodies/governments specifically on service delivery, financial management, and governance capacity — a narrower, administration-focused companion to the broader EoLI | Not to be confused with the global Multidimensional Poverty Index, which shares the same "MPI" abbreviation despite measuring something entirely unrelated — a favourite abbreviation trap |
| Good Governance Index (GGI) | Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) | Periodic (editions released in 2019 and 2021; a planned 2023 edition faced delay) | Ranks states/UTs on governance across ten sectors — agriculture, commerce & industry, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure, social welfare, judicial/public safety, environment, citizen-centric governance, and digital governance | Kerala and Tamil Nadu-tier states have generally led the "big states" category in past editions |
| District Hospital Index | NITI Aayog | Periodic | Ranks district-level public hospitals on clinical outcomes, service delivery, and quality-management systems — a more granular drill-down than the State Health Index's whole-state view | A newer addition to NITI Aayog's health-index family, feeding the same "competitive federalism" logic down to the district administrative level |
| State Energy and Climate Index | NITI Aayog | Periodic | Ranks states on energy-transition performance — access, affordability, efficiency, environmental sustainability, and new/renewable-energy initiatives | Framed explicitly as tracking states' contribution toward India's own net-zero-by-2070 pathway |
National MPI vs Global MPI vs "MPI, India" (the municipal one) is this section's single richest trap: all three share or nearly share the abbreviation "MPI," but the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (UNDP/OPHI, Section 2) measures poverty deprivations worldwide; India's National MPI (NITI Aayog) is India's own domestic adaptation of that same poverty framework to Indian data; and the Municipal Performance Index released by MoHUA measures something completely unrelated — how well city governments are administered. An exam question naming "MPI" without further context should be read carefully for which of these three it actually means.
SDG India Index vs India Innovation Index vs Export Preparedness Index vs SEQI vs CWMI vs State Health Index vs GGI are all NITI Aayog (or NITI-partnered) products ranking Indian states, not countries — the single highest-value fact for this whole section is simply that they exist and rank states rather than nations, which by itself resolves most confusion with their global-index namesakes (Global Innovation Index, SDGs generally, global Rule-of-Law-style governance indices). A second useful anchor: NITI Aayog explicitly designs these as "competitive and cooperative federalism" tools — nudging states to compete against each other and learn from top performers — which is why nearly every one of them sorts states into named performance bands (Front Runner/Performer/Aspirant, Achiever, etc.) rather than a bare numeric rank alone.
Practice Recall. Before reading on: name the body that publishes the "MPI, India" municipal-governance index, and explain why it should not be confused with the global Multidimensional Poverty Index despite sharing an abbreviation.
Answer: The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), released alongside the Ease of Living Index. It measures municipal body/governance performance in Indian cities — service delivery, finances, administration — entirely unrelated to the global MPI's measure of household poverty deprivations; the shared abbreviation is coincidental.