Five states in race for Niti Aayog's health programme

Five states have made it to the Niti Aayog's shortlist under a programme that aims to build three future 'role model' states for better health systems.

The government think tank had invited all states and UTs to participate in the programme named as Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital (SATH).

Sixteen states expressed their interest, of which 14 made their presentations to a committee headed by Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy.

"Of these fourteen states, five have been shortlisted," Niti Aayog said in a statement today.

The think tank however did not disclose the names of the states that have been shortlisted.

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh had presented their project proposal to the Niti panel.

The panel is headed by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy and comprise CEO Amitabh Kant as well as a representative from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"Three will be selected on the basis of further evaluations and objective assessment of criteria affecting the potential for impact and likelihood of success," Niti Aayog said.

"Metrics such as MMR, IMR, incidence of malaria and others have been considered for determining potential impact while density of doctors and nurses, compliance to IPHS norms are some of the metrics used to determine likelihood of success," it said further.

The programme will be launched in the three selected states after the signing of MoUs.

Niti Aayog said that the programme will be implemented by it along with McKinsey & Company and IPE Global consortium, who were selected through a competitive bidding process.

Under SATH, Niti will work in close collaboration with the state machinery to design a robust roadmap of intervention, develop a programme governance structure, set up monitoring and tracking mechanisms, hand-hold state institutions through the execution stage and provide support on a range of institutional measures to achieve the end objectives.