Going down the wrong path

India slips on indices of freedom and the government has not even acknowledged there is a problem

The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office of the NITI Aayog was set up in September 2015. A release on its website says that the “Government of India has decided to leverage the monitoring of select Global Indices (currently 31) to drive reforms and growth in the country”.

The government would track its own performance on four categories — industry, development, economy, and governance. There’s some NITI type jargon but this line makes clear what is sought to be achieved: “Another goal of this far-reaching, widespread exercise is use of these Indices as tools for systemic reforms in the policies and processes