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NITI Aayog Index: No State Reaches 60 in Investment Friendliness
India's first Investment Friendliness Index from NITI Aayog scores 36 states and UTs; none cross 60. Gujarat leads large states at 56.6. The index aims to guide state-level reforms to attract investment.
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NITI Aayog released its first Investment Friendliness Index on Friday, scoring 36 states and Union Territories on 84 indicators across eight pillars. None of them reached 60 out of 100.
Five states cleared 50 to be classed as top performers: Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. Fifteen states fell into the frontrunner band between 45 and 50. Eight aspiring states finished below 40.
Among the 17 large states, Gujarat topped the table with a score of 56.6, about three points ahead of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Odisha rounded out the top four at 52.4.
In the 12 hilly and northeastern states, Uttarakhand led with 47.5, narrowly ahead of Assam and Himachal Pradesh. Among the seven city states and Union Territories, Goa dominated with 53.1, comfortably ahead of Delhi and Chandigarh.
The index aggregates eight pillars: infrastructure, business climate, regulatory ease, government policy, resources, financial health, institutional environment and environmental resilience. Each pillar is scored separately and presented across three groups of states. No single state dominates every pillar; leadership shifts sharply depending on what is being measured.
Ashok Lahiri, vice chairman of NITI Aayog, said at the launch that the exercise is not a competition. "This is not a ranking exercise," he said, adding that it was meant to inform states where they are performing and where improvements are needed.