Leaders Who Run Their Areas Like CEOs

The idea

Picture a district collector in Jharkhand opening her quarterly scorecard. Five numbers tell her story: growth, formal jobs, learning, health and what citizens say on the phone. Her district has climbed to third in India this quarter, ranked on how far it rose from where it started.

Picture her searching a national Practice Library and finding Telangana's online, time-bound system for industrial approvals. She adopts the idea by order on Monday, runs a 90-day pilot against a matched district, and scales it when the numbers move.

Picture a mayor in Indore with the power to move money from a scheme that is lagging to one that is working, and a name printed on every result.

I believe India's best ideas already exist somewhere in India. A district in one state solves a problem that a district in another state is still working on. What we lack is a fast way to see the result and copy it.

When every leader can see the score, has the power to act, and is free to copy what works, good practice spreads in months, and every district can climb.

Why now

Here is why I think the time is right.

We can finally measure every district the same way. The National Statistics Office issued the first common District Domestic Product guideline on 3 June 2026, covering India's roughly 780 districts.

Scorecards already deliver here. The Aspirational Districts Programme ranks 112 districts every month on their own progress, and a UNDP appraisal found clear gains in births with skilled attendants and in bank accounts.

Good ideas can spread much faster. Telangana's TS-iPASS approvals system began under a 2014 Act, and NITI Aayog named it a national model only in January 2026. A 90-day path lets every state benefit within months.

The return is large. About ₹1,620 crore in year 1 could add about ₹70,000 crore a year to growth (estimate).

The big moves

Here is the path I see, one step after another.

1. First, publish one scorecard with five numbers. Every state, district and large city is scored each quarter on growth, formal jobs, learning, health and what citizens say. Citizens speak in two ways: a monthly phone survey, and a one-tap rating (0 to 10, a Net Promoter Score) offered after every government service is delivered, from a certificate to a land record. The rating opens only once the delivery is verified on the system, so it reflects real service, and the scores roll up live from each office to the district, the state and the country. We can start in the first month with the data we already have.

2. Next, make the scoring fair and independent. Areas are ranked on how much they improve from their own starting point, so a poor district that moves fastest can top the table. An independent National Statistics Authority, with the opposition and the judiciary on its selection panel, computes every score and publishes its code.

3. Then give leaders the power to act. One way is to let a district head or mayor move up to 10% of a budget head between schemes, inside the same voted grant, pause a scheme that keeps missing its target, and contract out services.

4. Then open a library of what works. NITI Aayog lists every practice that moved a number in a top-performing area, with its cost and its data. Any state, district or city can adopt one, test it for 90 days against a matched district, and scale it when it works.

5. Then let every area keep what it grows. A CEO who grows the business reinvests the profit in more growth. The same holds here. Each state and district gets a published baseline for the tax collected in it, grown each year at the national rate. Anything collected above that line is its growth surplus: the area keeps half of it, and all of its property-tax growth, and the leader is free to reinvest it in roads, schools, power, water or anything else that grows the area further. Growth then pays for more growth, and every mayor and chief minister has a direct reason to make their area the best place in India to build.

6. Finally, let results shape careers and rewards. Every office's bonus rests partly on its area's score (Chapter 12), top district teams and top states share performance pools, appointed officers who stay at the bottom for a full year move on after a written review, and elected leaders see their name on the score, so voters decide.

Today vs the new way

Here is how I see the new way comparing with today on measurement, speed and value.

For a small cost, every leader gets a clear score, real power and a fast path to what works.

Proof it works

India's Aspirational Districts show the power of a monthly score. Since 2018, a public ranking of 112 districts on their own progress has driven measurable gains in births with skilled attendants and in bank accounts, according to UNDP's appraisal.

The UK's Delivery Unit cut waiting lists. From 2001, a small unit tracked 17 public-service targets with regular data reviews. Patients waiting over a year for surgery fell from over 40,000 in 2001 to under 10,000 in 2003.

New York's CompStat spread across the world. From 1994, precinct commanders answered every week for their crime numbers in front of their peers, and the method spread to many police forces and city governments.

Keeping the surplus has powered growth before. In China's fiscal contracting years in the 1980s, provinces and cities that kept revenue above an agreed amount had a direct stake in growth, and coastal areas like Guangdong raced ahead. Swiss cantons keep most of what they raise and compete to be well run.

Rating after service already works. Dubai launched a Happiness Meter in 2014, letting people rate a government service with one tap at the counter, on the website or in the app, and leaders review the results. Andhra Pradesh calls citizens after a service is delivered and reviews district collectors on what they say.

Telangana's TS-iPASS is ready to share. NITI Aayog has put it forward as a model for the whole country, exactly the kind of practice the Library is built to spread.

What success looks like

• In the first 30 days: the five-number scorecard is adopted, the first state scorecard is published from existing data, and the Practice Library opens with 50 practices.
• In the first 30 days: states give collectors the 10% re-appropriation power within each grant.
• Within 1 year: every government service, online and at the counter, offers the one-tap rating after delivery, with live scores for every office, district and state on the public dashboard.
• Within 1 year: the National Statistics Authority is sitting, and the scorecard covers every district and every city of 10 lakh or more.
• Within 1 year: every state and district has a published tax baseline and a Growth Fund, and the first growth surplus is paid out.
• Within 1 year: at least 200 copy-the-best pilots are completed with results published, and the first bonus and performance pools are paid.
• After year 1: quarterly district output data replaces the interim proxy built from GST, EPFO, electricity and night-light data.

Guardrail ideas

Ideas to start the conversation, for the builders, experts and the public to shape together.

• Scores everyone can trust. Only the National Statistics Authority computes scores, with every metric checked each quarter against night lights, GST and electricity use, and an audit within 30 days of any gap above 3 points.
• Essential payments stay safe. Salaries, pensions and the income-tested cash transfer (Chapter 23) are fully protected from any money move, and any benefit created by an Act stays out of reach of a pause.
• Ratings that cannot be gamed. A rating opens only after a verified delivery, once per transaction, through a link sent to the citizen's own phone and never on an official's device. Staff never see who rated what, any request to rate well ends the official's performance bonus for the year, and the Authority checks every office for unusual patterns, such as bursts of perfect scores, and audits any outlier within 30 days.
• Fair to officers. An officer moves only after 4 bottom-decile quarters in a row and a written review, with scores adjusted for rainfall and the state average.
• Surplus spent on growth, in the open. The growth surplus sits in a published Growth Fund for each area, spent on capital works and services rather than new posts or giveaways, shown on the same public dashboard and checked by faceless audit (Chapter 13).
• Every area starts fair. The baseline is each area's own trend, so a poor district that grows fast keeps more, while the Finance Commission's share for poorer states stays in full.
• States stay whole. The performance pool is opt-in, with every state's constitutional tax share fully protected.

FAQs

Q: Will districts chase GDP at any cost?

A: They will chase balanced progress. Growth is only one of five numbers, health and learning carry equal weight, and a district that breaks the Chapter 21 air-quality limits, which step up to European levels, on more than 30 days in a quarter loses 10 points.

Q: Can't an office pressure people into giving good ratings?

A: The design gives every citizen a private, honest voice. The rating link goes only to the citizen's own phone after the service is delivered, staff never see individual scores, and the random monthly survey cross-checks every district, so a gap between the two triggers an audit.

Q: Is it fair to officers hit by drought or a factory closure?

A: Yes, the system rewards effort. Scores are adjusted for rainfall and for the state average, ranking is on each area's own progress, and an officer moves only after 4 bottom-decile quarters in a row and a written review.

Q: Won't rich areas simply get richer?

A: Every area gains from growing faster than its own past. The baseline is each area's own trend, so a lagging district that starts to climb keeps a share of every extra rupee it creates, the Finance Commission's share for poorer states is untouched, and the Practice Library lets any area copy the best.

Q: Does a central scorecard weaken federalism?

A: It strengthens states. The performance pool is opt-in, every state keeps its full constitutional share, states sit on the Authority's board, and every state can copy and run the open-source platform itself.

The detailed blueprint for this chapter, a starting draft for the mission heads, industry and the private sector to refine, is in the Implementation Annex.