Manipur most improved small state in 2022: India Today Survey

Manipur has won the most improved small state for the third consecutive time after surpassing other northeastern states with its performance in eight out of 12 categories, revealed a study by India Today.

In the annual State of the States survey carried out by India Today, the state has managed to achieve this feat after it improved its performance in eight out of 12 categories -- economy, infrastructure, agriculture, health, governance, entrepreneurship, tourism, and cleanliness -- in the past five years.

Manipur has tremendously outperformed other northeastern states by scoring 1,219.5 out of 2000 followed by Mizoram 1,147.6, Arunachal Pradesh 1,142.8, Sikkim 1,124.1, Nagaland 1,066.9, Meghalaya 1,034.1 and Tripura 960.5.

Meanwhile, taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the Manipur Chief Minister said, ''My love for Manipur and the support of my people have encouraged me to do the best for the state. We are moving forward daily and to be entitled as the BEST IMPROVED SMALL STATE by INDIA TODAY is a proud moment for all of us.

We have done this together!'' 

My love for Manipur and the support of my people have encouraged me to do the best for the state.
We are moving forward daily and to be entitled as the BEST IMPROVED SMALL STATE by INDIA TODAY is a proud moment for all of us.
We have done this together! pic.twitter.com/pKiOecNkWy

— N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) December 15, 2022

Notably, the 'Most Improved State' was selected on the basis of the Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGR) for the past five years.

While it tops the small states in the economy, infrastructure, and entrepreneurship, Manipur also figures among the top three in three categories—health, governance, and tourism.

As per India Today, Biren Singh credits this to the period of peace in the past four years wherein it witnessed a reduction in frequent terror attacks, ethnic conflicts, and economic blockades.

Barring a couple of incidents in 2021, a pre-election year, the number of terror-related killings has dropped from more than 55 in 2017 to just seven this year.

“My immediate priority was to bring peace and political stability. Once that was achieved, people had the confidence in the government, and then together we have embarked on a developmental journey,” the Manipur CM told India Today Magazine.

CM Singh further believes his past experience as a journalist has helped him in making him aware of the problems in the state.

“As a journalist, I was always looking for the truth, which made me aware of the primary cause of every problem in the state. And, a sportsperson always looks for results. So, when I became a politician, I already knew where the problems were and my sports-man spirit helped me focus on results, which is the deliverance of public good,” he said.

It is worth mentioning that shortly after taking charge, the Manipur CM started holding a public durbar at his official residence on the 15th of every month to get a measure of people’s grievances first-hand.

“Both missions helped me go into the roots of the mistrust between different communities and the causes of uneven socio-economic progress in different parts of the
state,” Indian Today Magazine quoted him as saying.

“The key to development is minute-to-minute monitoring,” Biren Singh added.

How the states were ranked?

The India Today State of the States 2022 study was conducted by Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA), a premier Delhi-based research agency. The
robust methodology is designed to rank the states on the basis of the most relevant and exhaustive data, covering aspects that are crucial in fostering inter-state competition
and upholding the true spirit of India’s federal structure. The states were ranked under two broad groups -- Best performing states and Most improved states.

Best-performing states indicate the latest performance of the state specific to the category and are based on the most recent data across multiple parameters.

On the other hand, most improved states indicate improvement of the state in the past five years and based on positive changes (outcome-based) in the past five years.

The states were also divided into two broad groups—big states and small states—based on geographical area and population. Deliberations revealed that bigger states have their own advantages and disadvantages vis-à-vis the smaller states. States with an area of over 35,000 sq. km and a population of over 5 million were clubbed as the big states and the rest as small. Jammu & Kashmir was not considered due to the change in its status. Twelve categories were identified for comparing the performance of the states.

In each category, several parameters on which the states needed to be competitive were fixed. Based on inputs from experts—academia, policymakers, and policy influencers such as representatives from the NITI Aayog, think tanks, policy research organizations, sociologists, and economists—125 parameters were finalized for evaluating the best-performing states and 89 for the most-improved states. The relative weights of the parameters were finalized in consultation with the experts, India today editors, and the MDRA team.

Based on the parameters and attributes, a comprehensive data collection exercise was undertaken. MDRA researchers cross-examined the data collected from highly credible sources such as the Census, Reserve Bank of India, NITI Aayog, respective ministries and departments, and state governments. To ensure a fair comparison, it was ensured that no state got an unfair advantage on account of size, population, or any other aspect.

It was necessary therefore to normalize the data based on population or geographical size, as required. The data collected for each attribute was cleaned, normalized, and standardized to make it comparable. The most recent data for each state (mostly 2021-2022, 2020-21, 2019-20, 2018-19, and 2017-18) was taken and analyzed to evaluate the best-performing states. To compare and rank the most improved states, compounded annual growth rates (CAGR) on each attribute for the past five years were used.
Based on the weights determined for each attribute, sectoral rankings were arrived at. Parameter-level weights were used to determine the overall best-performing and most improved states.

A large MDRA team, led by Abhishek Agrawal (executive director), Abnish Jha (project director), Vaibhav Gupta (assistant research manager), Aditya Srivastava (assistant research executive), and Manveer Singh (senior executive-EDP) and assisted by statisticians and econometricians, worked on this voluminous project from July to November 2022.

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