Feature
Despite being fastest improving states, Uttar Pradesh worst on health indicators
Despite being among the fastest improving states, Uttar Pradesh ranked at the bottom among 21 large states on health indicators as per NITI Aayog’s Health Index Rankings announced on Friday. Kerala emerged on top followed by Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
In terms of annual incremental performance, UP ranked third behind Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.
“Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and UP showed the maximum gains in improvement of health outcomes from base (2014-15) to reference year (2015-16) in indicators such as neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, full immunization coverage, institutional deliveries, and People Living with HIV (PLHIV) on anti-retroviral therapy,” the “Healthy States, Progressive India” report said.
However, it noted that while states that start at lower levels of development are generally at an advantage in notching up incremental progress over states with high health index scores, it is a challenge for states with high index scores to even maintain their performance levels.
In overall rankings among the larger states, Punjab jumped three places to knock off Tamil Nadu from the second place.
Both Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand jumped four places to be placed at 7th and 14th places respectively.
However, despite improving its overall score on the index, Uttar Pradesh could not improve its ranking and was placed at the bottom below Bihar and Rajasthan.
Among the smaller states, Mizoram ranked first followed by Manipur on overall performance. In terms of annual incremental performance, Manipur came out on top followed by Goa.
Among the union territories, Lakshadweep showed both the best overall performance, as well as the highest annual incremental performance.
The NITI Aayog said the index would be linked to incentives under the National Health Mission, which underlines the importance of such an exercise.
While releasing the report, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said it would serve as a tool to leverage co-operative and competitive federalism to accelerate the pace of achieving health outcomes.
It would also serve as an instrument for “nudging” states and union territories to put much greater focus on output and outcome-based measurement of annual performance, he said.
Kant added that the next such report on the states’ performance will be released in June.
He added that NITI Aayog would also bring out a ranking of 730 district hospitals based on their performance.
“The intention is to give incentives to good performers while shaming those who do not improve by naming them and putting out their details in public domain,” he said.
The health ranking of states has been done in three categories namely larger states, smaller states and union territories to ensure comparison among similar entities.
The NITI Aayog said it is a weighted composite index based on indicators in three domains: health outcomes (70 per cent weightage), governance and information (12 per cent), and key inputs and processes (18 per cent).
According to the report, the incremental measurement reveals that about one-third of the states have registered a decline in their performance in 2016 as compared to 2015, stressing the need to pursue domain-specific, targeted interventions.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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