Gujarat, Kerala, and Punjab have emerged as top performers in the category of larger States in the State Energy & Climate Index-Round I released by Niti Aayog today.

Goa has emerged as the top-performing State in the smaller states category, followed by Tripura, and Manipur.

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Among Union Territories, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli are the top performers.

The State Energy & Climate Index (SECI) Round I ranks the States’ performance on six parameters.

These are discoms’ performance, access, affordability and reliability of energy, clean energy initiatives, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and new initiatives.

The parameters are further divided into 27 indicators. Based on the composite SECI Round I score, the states and UTs are categorized into three groups: Front Runners, Achievers, and Aspirants.

The Index revealed that some of the important data was not available at the State level. There was a need to develop a robust mechanism for capturing such data so that it can be incorporated in future editions of the report.

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar, who chaired the release of the Index said that efforts towards achieving the ‘Panchamrit’ targets announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP-26, Glasgow need to be converted into a peoples’ movement.

In this, the role of the States will be critical, he said. Governance innovation and mutual learning by States shall go a long way in improving outcomes. The SECI Round I is the right step in this direction, he said.

Niti Aayog member V K Saraswat remarked that synergy and partnership among the Centre and the States will be critical for achieving energy and climate-related goals and making the country self-reliant in the energy sector.

After extensive discussions with stakeholders, several key parameters have been identified to track and rank the performance of the states in this report, he said.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that achieving the ambitious climate targets would require a conducive policy environment to encourage investment.

He said the Round-I of the Index would help initiate a dialogue with the states on the energy sector so that the much required policy improvements could be made.