Sectoral Focus
The Aspirational Districts Programme marks an important shift in the approach towards inclusive development by focusing on five critical sectors – Healthcare, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure. The selection of these five themes is based on the fact that they have a direct bearing on the quality of life and economic productivity of citizens. Therefore, each of the sectors have been allocated different weightage and indicators which serve as the basis for measuring performance.
Assignment of such weights is essentially a subjective exercise, albeit informed by a policy focus. For this programme, following weights have been assigned:
The relative importance assigned to different sectors is based on an important principle:
The programme is people-centric. While the importance of other enabling factors in improving quality of life is indisputable, this programme focuses on key social sectors. Health, nutrition and education on one hand determine the quality of life, and on the other, are also important factors determining economic productivity and therefore employability of a person. They have thus been assigned the highest weightage.