Globally, India boasts the second largest population and has a critical role to play in the world’s achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, understanding the efficacy of interventions designed to bolster social progress for such a significant population can be unwieldy and inaccurate. We are excited to announce that in partnership with our CEO, Michael Green, Dr. Amit Kapoor, the Chair of the Institute for Competitiveness and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, developed an assessment of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) to better understand how the India has worked to galvanize socioeconomic improvement of the most underdeveloped districts in the country.
“ADP marks an important shift from pursuing economic growth per se to focusing on achieving meaningful social progress ADP benchmarks in 112 less developed Indian districts, and enables partnerships among states in driving success. The program focuses on practical and measurable
An excerpt from the Report’s forward, written by Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School and Professor Scott Stern of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
social progress outcomes, including Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure. Each of these are critical to expanding shared prosperity among all citizens.”
Through thoughtful and thorough analysis, Dr. Amit Kapoor and Michael Green laid out clear and insightful suggestions to ensure maximum impact of the APD. Their recommendations include leveraging partnerships, ensuring quality data collection, and encouraging cooperation between local and state government.
We have seen overall improvements on the Social Progress Index over the past few years. However progress has been slow and uneven. Accordingly, we are incredibly excited to see how our partners in India are employing noneconomic indicators of success to use data to turn action into impact for the country’s most underdeveloped districts. It is imperative that we actively work towards more inclusive and sustainable solutions.
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