A groundbreaking tool, the SKOCH State of Development Index, is redefining how we measure progress in India’s states and union territories. Launched as a holistic benchmark, it blends three key pillars-governance quality, digital infrastructure, and fiscal health—each contributing equally to the final score.
Unlike traditional metrics fixated on GDP or welfare handouts, this Index offers a fuller picture of what sustainable growth really looks like.

Good governance is gauged through expert reviews, citizen feedback, and on-ground project impact. Digital readiness looks at telecom access, education levels, and online service usage. Fiscal strength weighs debt, revenue, and smart spending on development. Together, these create a balanced, evidence-based ranking that’s tough to game—a state can’t just lean on one strength to mask other weaknesses.

Why does this matter? It’s built for India’s diverse reality, capturing everything from rural connectivity to urban budgets. It’s also a wake-up call for policymakers, pinpointing gaps in institutions, infrastructure, or finances to guide smarter reforms. Experts call it robust because it fuses hard data with real-world insights, ensuring development isn’t just a number but a lived experience.
By rewarding well-rounded progress, the Index pushes states to think long-term—pairing visionary leadership with digital empowerment and sound money management. It’s not just a report card; it’s a roadmap for inclusive growth.

The SKOCH Governance Outcomes Index is designed to ensure a rigorous and multi-layered evaluation process that reflects both the quality and impact of governance initiatives across Indian states. This index measures the quality of bureaucratic institutions, administrative responsiveness, and the capacity of the state to deliver essential services and public goods. This Index stands out as a groundbreaking approach to assessing the performance of Indian states through a robust, multi-layered evaluation mechanism rooted in both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

The e-Governance Infrastructure Index assesses a state’s digital governance infrastructure and human capital readiness through three indicators: Telecommunication and Internet Index (TII) (25%) – Measures teledensity per 100 people and Internet penetration per 100. Human Capital Index (HCI) (25%) – Captures enrolment ratio in elementary education. Online Services Index (OSI) (50%) – Captures e-transactions per 100 users and the availability of number of government services.

SKOCH INDICES FOR VIKSIT BHARAT

The Financial Prudence Index captures a state’s ability to raise revenues, manage expenditures, and ensure fiscal sustainability—core components of state capacity. The decentralisation of fiscal responsibilities is seen as a mechanism to improve allocative efficiency, presuming that subnational governments are better positioned to assess and address local preferences. The Index not only reflects a state’s technical competence in public financial management but also its institutional resilience in balancing autonomy with accountability. By assessing fiscal health through this triad—revenue generation, expenditure management, and long-term sustainability—the Index serves as a proxy for measuring broader governance capabilities at the state level.