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CPREventsCPR & IWRS Roundtable Consultation on ‘NITI’s Composite Water Management Index’ (invite only)

Events

CPR & IWRS Roundtable Consultation on ‘NITI’s Composite Water Management Index’ (invite only)

Date and Time

September 20, 2018

9:30 am to 1:00 pm

Location

Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research

The NITI Aayog has recently released a Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report – an assessment of states’ progress in water resource management. The report’s larger goal, as it says is will help to “…enable effective water management in Indian states in the face of this growing [water] crisis.” How will the CWMI help in achieving the stated goal is not clear yet. This has allowed speculations about its significance in the background of the 15th Finance Commission’s terms of reference suggesting the possibility of attaching states’ financial allocations to their respective ‘performance indicators.’ Irrespective of how far these speculations hold good, the exercise of assessing performance of states in water resource management is a significant step in federal governance of water resources.

This Roundtable consultation is aimed at brainstorming the report, its intent, and implications for federal governance of water resources. NITI Aayog will be making the opening presentation at the roundtable. The Roundtable will address the following questions:

Questions

  1. What is the intent and implications of the CWMI?
  2. Does the CWMI provide a fair assessment of states’ water resource management performance? What are the problems? How can it be improved?
  3. Can it be the basis for financial allocations by Centre to the states for water resource development, regulation and management?
  4. Does it serve the purpose of competitive and cooperative federalism goals – as envisaged by the CWMI report? How?
  5. If not, what are the alternative ways of going about it? What other supplemental measures we can consider for securing ‘better’ water resource management by states?