Context: 

The three southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana emerged as the top performers among the ‘larger states’ in the NITI Aayog’s annual ‘health index’ for the Covid year of 2020-21.

About Annual Health Index:

• The annual health index  measures the performance of states and UTs on a “weighted composite score incorporating 24 health performance indicators”.
• Domains in the index: Each of the below domain has been assigned weight based on its importance with higher score for outcome indicators
  1. Health Outcomes
  2. Governance and information
  3. Key inputs/ processes
• Indicators under health outcomes: Neonatal mortality rate, total fertility rate, sex ratio at birth, immunisation coverage, proportion of institutional deliveries, total case notification rate of tuberculosis, and proportion of people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy.
• Indicators under governance and information domain: proportion of institutional deliveries, average occupancy (in months) of three key posts at state level, average occupancy (in months) of the chief medical officer, and days taken for fund transfer.
• Key inputs/ processes: It is a measure of health infrastructure available, including proportion of functional 24X7 primary healthcare centres, districts with functional cardiac care units, and vacancies in healthcare provider positions
• Launched in: in 2017. 
• Launched by: NITI Aayog in collaboration with the Union Health Ministry and World Bank.
• Parameters used in the index: 
  1. Incremental Performance (year-on-year progress)
  2. Overall Performance. 
• Ranking categories: 
  1. Larger states
  2. Smaller states
  3. UTs 

Performance: 

• Overall performance: 
  • Larger States (19): Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have emerged as the top three performers, occupying first, second and third place respectively. 
    • Bihar (19th), Uttar Pradesh (18th) and Madhya Pradesh (17th) are at the bottom of the list.
  • Smaller States (8): Tripura has recorded the best overall performance, followed by Sikkim and Goa.
    • Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur are at the bottom.
  • UT (8): Lakshadweep has been ranked as the top performer in terms of overall performance, while Delhi ranked at the bottom

• Incremental performance: 
  • Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Odisha emerged as the top three performers in 2020-21, as compared to their performance in 2019-20.

News Source: Indian Express

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