NITI Aayog weighs discontinuing key water report launched 5 yrs ago

Subject: Polity

Section: Msc

Context: NITI weighs discontinuing key water report launched 5 years ago

More about the news:

Niti Aayog, the Indian government’s think tank, has decided to keep the ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (CWMI) reports for 2018-19 and 2019-20 for “internal use” instead of releasing them publicly.
The CWMI reports, which evaluate states’ performance in water management based on 28 parameters, have previously been made public.
This decision comes as the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has not responded to Niti Aayog’s request regarding the “use and applicability” of the Index.
The latest unreleased report states that water scarcity is a “national problem” in India, with Gujarat leading in performance, closely followed by Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.

What is Composite Water Management Index (CWMI):

NITI Aayog introduced the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) in 2018 to enhance water management in Indian states.
The CWMI report is prepared in collaboration with three key ministries: Water Resources, Drinking Water & Sanitation, and Rural Development.
The Objectives of the Index include fostering improvements in water resource management, providing an annual snapshot of water sector status across states and UTs, and measuring progress over time.
The CWMI aims to promote evidence-based policy decisions for sustainable water management and encourages competitive and cooperative federalism.
The Index comprises 9 themes (each having an attached weight) with 28 different indicators.

For the CWMI, the reporting states were also divided into two special groups – Non-Himalayan states and North-Eastern and Himalayan states, to account for the different hydrological conditions across these groups