(THE GIST OF PIB) Panchayat Advancement Index

(MAY-2025)

Panchayat Advancement Index

Recently, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj organised a two-day national write-shop on rolling out of Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) Version 2.0 for the financial year 2023-24 in New Delhi.

About Panchayat Advancement Index:

It is a multi-domain and multi-sectoral indexthat is intended to be used to assess the overall holistic development, performance & progress of Panchayats.
It aims to assess and measure the progress made by grassroots-level institutions in achieving localized SDGs, thereby contributing to the attainment of SDG 2030.
The index takes into account various socio-economic indicators and parameters to gauge the well-being and development status of the local communities within the jurisdiction of a Panchayat.
One of the purposes of the PAI is to identify the development gaps of the Panchayats through the scores achieved across various LSDG themes and enable the Panchayat for evidence-based planning at grassroots level.
It has been compiled based on 435 unique local Indicators (331 mandatory & 104 optional) consisting of 566 unique data points across 9 themes of LSDGs (Localization of Sustainable Development Goals) aligned with National Indicator Framework (NIF) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
The PAI reflects India’s commitment to achieving the SDG 2030 Agenda through participatory, bottom-up development.
Based on the PAI scores & thematic Scores achieved by different Gram Panchayats, these GPs are grouped into one of the categories of performance – Achiever: (90+), Front Runner: (75 to below 90); Performer: (60 to below 75); Aspirant: (40 to below 60) and Beginners (below 40).
While PAI Version 1.0 served as the baseline and covered data from 2.16 lakh Gram Panchayats across 29 States/UTs, PAI Version 2.0 represents a major leap forward in functionality, efficiency, and usability.
The transition from PAI 1.0 to 2.0 reflects a focused refinement of the framework, with a sharper and more practical set of indicators and data points to improve usability and reliability while retaining thematic comprehensiveness.