Context: 

Recently, the Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj released Report on Panchayat Development Index at National Workshop on Panchayat Development Index.

About Panchayat Development Index (PDI):

• The government had constituted a committee for preparation of the Panchayat Development Index which included members from different ministries and departments of Union and state governments.
• Launched by: Ministry of Panchayati Raj
• Statistics: PDI has 144 local targets, 577 local indicators on 9 themes of LSDGs. 
• The PDI ranks panchayats on the basis of scores, and categorise them into four grades
• Nine themes: 
  • Poverty free and enhanced livelihood in village
  • Healthy village
  • Child friendly village
  • Water sufficient village
  • Clean and green village
  • Village with self-sufficient infrastructure
  • Socially just and socially secured villages
  • Village with good governance
  • Women friendly village
• Objective: 
  • To enable the process of Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in PRIs.
  • To play a pivotal role in the process of quantified evaluation and mechanism for computation of the composite score on 9 themes of LSDGs
  • To pave the way for outcome oriented development goals at Panchayats. 
• Significance: 
  • PDI will act as a baseline for Panchayat for setting local targets & local action points with measurable indicators in preparation of thematic Gram Panchayat Development Plan. 
  • The PDI will help to reflect the current status of the Panchayats to take concerted actions to achieve development goals through building institutional mechanisms.

News Source: pib