November 03, 2023 – UPSC Current Affairs: Key Prelims News Topics

Amongst the large states Kerala is declared as a best governed states and Uttar Pradesh finds its place at the bottom of the Public Affairs Index 2020. The Public Affairs Index was prepared by the Public Affairs Centre, a not for profit organisation.

Key Facts of the annual report

• The ranking of the states was in accordance to the governance performance as sustainable development.
• The sustainable development is based on the three factors which are equity, growth and sustainability.
• In large states group – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are among the top five while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha were among the states that are at the bottom of the governance based rankings.
• In small states group – Goa ranked first, followed by Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh while Manipur, Delhi and Uttarakhand were amongst the worst performers.
• In the group of Union Territories, Chandigarh ranked first, followed by Pondicherry and Lakshadweep while Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar were amongst the worst performer states.

Public Affairs Centre (PAC)

PAC is non-profit organisation and a research think tank based at Bengaluru in Karnataka. The organisation strives to work for the betterment of the governance system in India. The Public Affairs Centre is chaired by the former ISRO chairman K. Kasturirangan. The organisation does the research works in broad areas such as public policy and participatory governance. The think tank releases the Public Affairs Index annually as the report and status of the states on basis of their governance.

Public Affairs Index

The Public Affairs Index is the ranking of the states based on the research data, in accordance with their performance in governance aspect. It is the crucial index which indicates and mirrors the progress of the Indian states and Union Territories in terms of governance, an important pillar of the democracy.