NEW DELHI, October 8 — NITI Aayog, in institutional partnership with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, on Thursday unveiled the third edition of the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI 3.0), providing an empirical performance audit of water resource conservation, irrigation efficiency, and rural-urban water supply across Indian states and union territories.
In the non-Himalayan major states category, Gujarat and Karnataka retained the leading ranks based on robust participatory irrigation and groundwater replenishment architectures, while Himachal Pradesh secured first place among North-Eastern and Himalayan states. The report emphasized that national water interventions—notably the Jal Jeevan Mission and Atal Bhujal Yojana—have expanded functional household tap connections to over 78 percent of rural households nationwide.
Releasing the document, NITI Aayog leadership underscored that India supports nearly 18 percent of the global human population with only 4 percent of the world's renewable freshwater reserves. The index urges states to mandate precision micro-irrigation, urban wastewater reuse, and computerized aquifer mapping to buffer agricultural productivity against extreme climate fluctuations.
Water governance frameworks under NITI Aayog, constitutional provisions on water (Entry 17 of State List, Entry 56 of Union List, and Article 262 on Interstate River Water Disputes), the Atal Bhujal Yojana, and national irrigation schemes (PMKSY) are core topics across UPSC Civil Services (GS-II & GS-III) and State PSC syllabi. Candidates should note that CWMI evaluates states across 28 indicators grouped into nine thematic domains, promoting competitive federalism in ecological preservation.