View: The recipe to aspirational districts’ steady progress SECTIONS Last Updated: Jul 11, 2021, 01:08 PM IST Share Synopsis The ADP has managed to effectively leverage digital technology to display progress of districts on the “Champions of Change” dashboard in real time. The dynamic dashboard tracks the performance of districts and their distance from their targets on key indicators with real-time visibility. ADP empowers the states to be the main drivers of change, who then work with the central government to identify and target development goals for these districts. India’s Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is one of the most ambitious endeavours of the Government of India (GoI) for driving transformation in 112 of the most backward districts in the country. The programme focuses on five main themes – Health & Nutrition; Education; Agriculture & Water Resources; Financial Inclusion & Skill Development; and Basic Infrastructure. Since the launch of ADP in 2018, the aspirational districts have made immense progress. Recently, a UNDP appraisal report titled Aspirational Districts Programme: An Appraisal recognized that the programme resulted in sectoral growth and improvements in governance and administration and commends it for applying “innovative techniques”. The question is, “What are these innovative techniques that sets ADP apart from other similar developmental initiative?”