Maharashtra has emerged as the nation’s best performer on economic, social and governance parameters, according to rankings released on Wednesday by a domestic credit rating organization.

Gujarat and Tamil Nadu follow in the composite rankings for states released by CareEdge – the research wing of Care Ratings Ltd, where it has also taken into account the performance on infrastructure, financial inclusion, fiscal management and environment.

The rankings are based on seven pillars -- economic, fiscal, social, infrastructure, financial inclusion, environment, and governance covering 46 indicators to rank the major states in the country.  With regards to governance, Uttar Pradesh is ranked third, just behind the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

CareEdge's chief economist Rajani Sinha attributed this to the Yogi Adityanath-ruled state's gains in ease of doing business. She explained that the highest weightage has been given to progress on ease of doing business, followed by e-governance records, conviction rates and police strength while arriving at the governance rankings.

Sinha said the overall rankings suggest the gains made over a longer period of time, and the pecking order is unlikely to change soon. However, sustained efforts on the policy front can result in shifts over a longer period of time.

Stating that physical infrastructure is getting due attention, she suggests the states to focus on social infrastructure like health and education, if we were to realise the potential of the favourable demographics. States in the west and south are doing better largely because of the beneficial policies that they have adopted, Sinha said.

She said Tamil Nadu's third position in the overall rankings is driven by its performance on the social aspects, even though neighboring Kerala leads the list on this parameter. Maharashtra tops the overall list, driven largely by its performance on financial inclusion and fiscal fronts, Sinha said, adding that Gujarat fares better on the economic and fiscal front.

Gujarat is ranked lower on the social parameters but higher than states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, the list showed. Odisha is the top-ranked state on the fiscal parameter and is followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat while on the environment front Andhra Pradesh leads, followed by Karnataka and Telangana.

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