Outcome-based regional programmes: Aspirational Districts, Aspirational Blocks and Vibrant Villages

Detail

Background: from target areas to measured outcomes

• Target area approach: planning for one kind of backward area (hills, drought-prone land, tribal land), not for the whole country in the same way.
• The Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79) started the Hill Area Development Programme and the tribal sub-plans.

• Bharmaur in Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh, home of the Gaddi tribe, was one such tribal project area.

• Outcome-based programme: a programme judged by measured results, such as fewer underweight children or more children in school. It is not judged only by money spent or works built.

• NITI Aayog (2015) replaced the Planning Commission. Its three newer programmes keep the target-area idea but add data, rankings and competition:
• districts (2018)
• blocks (2023)
• border villages (2023 and 2025)

Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), 2018

• What it is: a NITI Aayog programme launched by the Prime Minister in January 2018 to change 112 of India's most under-developed districts "quickly and effectively" [2].
• Aspirational district: one of these 112 districts. They were chosen on objective data, not by a fixed money grant. They are called "aspirational" (wanting to rise), not "backward".
• The 3 Cs (how it works):
• Convergence: central and state schemes are brought together in one district plan, so money and effort are not split up.
• Collaboration: district officials, citizens, civil society (NGOs and community groups) and the private sector work together. Each district gets a central prabhari (in-charge) officer.

• Competition: districts compete with each other through a live public ranking.

• Champions of Change dashboard: the online portal where districts enter data and see their ranking. It tracks progress in real time [2].

• Delta ranking: districts are ranked by how much they improve (the "delta", or change), not by their starting level. A very poor district can still come first if it improves fastest [2].

• A baseline ranking in 2018 recorded where each district started [3].

• 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in five themes [2]:

Theme	Examples of what is measured
Health and nutrition	antenatal care, institutional deliveries, child immunisation, stunting and wasting
Education	enrolment, learning outcomes, toilets and electricity in schools
Agriculture and water resources	irrigated area, crop insurance, Soil Health Cards, crop yields
Financial inclusion and skill development	Jan Dhan accounts, insurance cover, skilled youth
Basic infrastructure	rural roads, electricity, drinking water, Internet

• Where the districts are (spatial pattern):
• the tribal central belt: the Chota Nagpur and Bastar plateau areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha
• the poor eastern states: Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh
• Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts. LWE means armed Maoist (Naxalite) violence, mostly in forest and mineral areas.

• Some remote north-eastern and hill districts

• Judgement: UNDP published an independent appraisal of the ADP [4].

• Like other reviewers, it called the programme largely a success, with clear gains in health, nutrition and basic infrastructure.
• It also raised doubts about data quality: districts report their own data, and the rankings depend on those figures.
• It also pointed out that some indicators, such as learning outcomes, were slow to move.

Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP), 2023

• Launch: by the Prime Minister on 7 January 2023 [5].
• Coverage: 500 blocks in 329 districts across 27 states and 4 Union Territories [5][6].

• Block: the unit below the district. It is also called a tehsil or taluk in some states, and community development blocks date back to 1952.

• Indicators: about 40, covering health, nutrition, education, agriculture and basic infrastructure. It uses the same delta ranking method as the ADP [6].

• Why go down to the block?
• Averages hide gaps: a district's average can look good while some blocks inside it stay very poor.
• This is the same lesson as Bharmaur: even inside one tribal project area, Tundah and Kugti lagged behind the rest.

• A smaller unit lets officials aim at the real pockets of poverty.

• Follow-up campaigns:

• Sankalp Saptaah (30 September 2023): a week-long planning drive in every aspirational block, with one theme each day [5].
• Sampoornata Abhiyan (2024): a campaign to fully meet (saturate) key indicators in aspirational districts and blocks [7].

Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP-I), 2023

• What it is: a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for full development of villages along the northern land border (the border with China), for 2022-23 to 2025-26, with ₹4,800 crore [8].

• Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS): a scheme designed by the Centre and run by the states, with the cost usually shared between them.

• Area covered: 46 border blocks in 19 districts of 4 states and 1 UT [8][9]:

• Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh (UT)

• 2,967 villages were identified. 663 were taken up in the first phase [8][9].

• Launch: by the Union Home Minister at Kibithoo, a border village in Anjaw district, Arunachal Pradesh, in April 2023 [10]. Kibithoo lies in the Lohit valley near the India–China–Myanmar tri-junction.

• What it builds [8][9]:
• livelihoods based on local resources: eco-agribusiness, cooperatives and self-help groups
• all-weather road connectivity, housing, electricity, TV and telecom links
• tourism and culture: border villages as "first villages" of India, not "last villages". NCERT Class 10 Economics notes the VVP as a tourism scheme.

• skills for youth and women

• Why (cause → effect):

• Out-migration problem:

  • Thin soils, harsh winters and few jobs push young people out of high Himalayan villages.
  • Empty villages along the Line of Actual Control weaken India's presence on the border.
  • The VVP gives people reasons to stay, so the villages act as "eyes and ears" of the border.

• Link: the VVP works alongside border roads (the Border Roads Organisation) and the planned Arunachal Frontier Highway, which will run along the northern border of Arunachal Pradesh (see india-transport-communication).

Vibrant Villages Programme-II (VVP-II), 2025

• Approval: 2 April 2025, as a Central Sector Scheme with ₹6,839 crore up to 2028-29 [11].

• Central Sector Scheme: the Centre pays 100% and runs it. Note the contrast with VVP-I, which is a CSS.

• Coverage: 1,954 strategic villages in blocks next to international land borders other than the northern border [11].

• 17 states/UTs: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal [11]. This means the borders with Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
• Ten focus areas [11]:
• livelihoods, road connectivity, energy
• village infrastructure, including health
• financial inclusion, youth and skills
• cooperatives, SHGs (self-help groups) and FPOs (farmer producer organisations)

• tourism and culture, education, and TV and telecom connectivity

• Launch: at Nathunpur village, Assam [12].

Comparison of the three programmes

Feature	ADP	ABP	VVP-I / VVP-II
Year	Jan 2018	Jan 2023	2023 / Apr 2025
Run by	NITI Aayog	NITI Aayog	Ministry of Home Affairs
Unit	District (112)	Block (500 in 329 districts)	Village (2,967 / 1,954)
Indicators	49 KPIs, 5 themes	~40	Saturation of basic services
Main goal	Human development	Human development at a finer scale	Border security + stopping out-migration
Scheme type	Uses existing schemes (convergence)	Uses existing schemes (convergence)	CSS (I) / Central Sector (II)

Prelims Hooks

• ADP: launched January 2018, 112 districts, 49 KPIs, 5 themes. Ranking is on the Champions of Change dashboard.
• Delta ranking = ranking by improvement, not by absolute level. Trap: it is not a ranking of "most developed" districts.
• The ADP's five themes do not include "industry" or "environment". The fourth theme is financial inclusion and skill development.
• ABP: launched 7 January 2023, 500 blocks, 329 districts, 27 states + 4 UTs, about 40 indicators.
• VVP-I: 4 states + 1 UT (Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh), 19 districts, 46 blocks, ₹4,800 crore.

• Trap: Jammu and Kashmir is not in VVP-I. It is in VVP-II.

• VVP-I was launched at Kibithoo (Arunachal Pradesh). VVP-II was launched at Nathunpur (Assam).

• VVP-I = Centrally Sponsored Scheme; VVP-II = Central Sector Scheme (₹6,839 crore, up to 2028-29, 1,954 villages).
• Order of the spatial unit, largest to smallest: ADP (district) → ABP (block) → VVP (village).
• Bharmaur (Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, Gaddi tribe): Tundah and Kugti lagged inside one project area. This is the classic case for planning below the district level.

Mains Points

• Evolution of target-area planning (GS-I/III):
• First came sector-by-sector Five Year Plans.
• Then came Fifth Plan hill and tribal area programmes.
• Today there are data-driven, ranked programmes at the district, then block, then village level.

• Each step makes the planning unit smaller, so that poverty hidden by averages is reached.

• Spatial pattern of backwardness:

• Aspirational districts cluster in the tribal, mineral-rich central plateau, the densely populated eastern Gangetic plain and LWE areas.

• This shows that poverty is linked to forest and land rights, conflict and weak services, not just to low resources.

• Strengths and limits of the ADP/ABP model:

• Strengths:
  • Convergence avoids duplicate schemes.
  • Competition motivates district officers.
  • Real-time data makes officials accountable.

• Limits (the UNDP appraisal points to some):

  • Self-reported data may not be reliable.
  • Officers may "teach to the indicator" and chase the measured targets instead of real change.
  • Indicators such as learning and income change slowly.
  • Officers are transferred often.

• Border-area development as security policy (GS-III):

• The VVP treats people living on the border as a strategic asset.
• Roads, power, tourism and livelihoods in Himalayan and other border villages stop out-migration and strengthen India's presence on the border.
• The VVP needs to be linked with border roads and the Arunachal Frontier Highway.
• It must also be balanced with fragile mountain ecology through sustainable, carrying-capacity-based tourism.