Public Affairs Index 2022

Public Affairs Index (PAI) - 2022 Governance in the States of India
Research Team: Gurucharan Gollerkeri, Anjana Kizhpadathil, Nidhi Sharma, Sai Sidharth M., Ramana H. M.
Published by: Public Affairs Centre (PAC)

Public Affairs Index (PAI) 2022: Governance in the States of India presents the seventh edition of the Public Affairs Centre's governance assessment framework, evaluating the performance of Indian states through a constitutional lens centred on Social, Economic, and Political Justice. Moving beyond its earlier Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-based framework, the report adopts a Constitution-centric approach using 22 governance indicators grouped under 3 themes and 5 sub-themes to assess how effectively states fulfil their constitutional responsibilities. Employing a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodology based on the TOPSIS technique, supplemented by Mahalanobis distance measures, the study ranks 18 large and 10 small states on governance outcomes while also incorporating qualitative narrative analysis of citizen perceptions using Natural Language Processing (NLP) of public discourse. The report identifies strengths and weaknesses across states in areas such as economic justice, rule of law, social development, and public service delivery, providing state-wise fact sheets, comparative rankings, delta analysis, and policy recommendations aimed at strengthening evidence-based governance, promoting cooperative and competitive federalism, and advancing equitable, accountable, and constitutionally aligned development across India.