What is the focus of the 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' (Aspirational Districts Programme) initiative launched by the Government of India in January 2018?

The National Health Policy recommended an increase in the Government’s health expenditure from the existing 1.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025. Also, the Fifteenth Finance Commission, in its report, had recommended that public health expenditure of Union and States together should be increased in a progressive manner to reach 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025. India ranked 132 out of 191 countries and territories in the 2021/2022 HDI report7. India’s HDI value of 0.633 in 2021 places the country in the medium human development category, lower than its value of 0.645 in 2019. On the parameter of gender inequality, India’s Gender Inequality Index (GII)9 value is 0.490 in 2021 and is ranked 122. This score is better than that of the South Asian region (value: 0.508) and close to the world average of 0.465. The 2022 report of the UNDP on MPI was released in October 2022 and covers 111 developing countries. As regards India, the survey data for 2019-21 has been used. Based on these estimates, 16.4 per cent of the population in India (228.9 million people in 2020) is multidimensionally poor while an additional 18.7per cent is classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty (260.9 million people in 2020). The Government of India launched the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ (Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP)) initiative in January 2018 with a vision of a New India by 2022 wherein the focus is to raise living standards of its citizens and ensuring inclusive growth of all in the burgeoning economy. 117 Aspirational Districts (ADs) across 28 States/UTs have been identified by NITI Aayog based upon composite indicators ranging from health and nutrition, education, agriculture, and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, and basic infrastructure which have an impact on HDI. The ADP has emerged as a template for good governance, especially in remote and difficult areas. At present, two programmes have been conceptualised along the lines of ADP design, one is ‘Mission Utkarsh’ and the other is ‘Aspirational Blocks Programme’ (ABP).