NITI Aayog “Healthy States, Progressive India” Report and Health Index 2019  index analyses overall performance and incremental improvement in the States and the Union Territories for the period with 2015-16 as the base year and 2017-18 as the reference year.

• While Kerala,among larger states, remains the healthiest State in India,said NITI Aayog as it released the second edition of its State Health Index, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra;
• Uttar Pradesh remains the most unhealthy, followed by  Bihar, and Odisha languish at the bottom;
• Even in the better-performing States, Tamil Nadu dropped from third position to ninth position, while Punjab dropped from second position to the fifth.
• Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand that were the top three in terms of incremental performance;
• Among smaller states, Mizoram ranks first followed by Manipur on overall performance while Tripura and Manipur were the top two states in terms of incremental performance. Sikkim and Arunchal Pradesh had the biggest decrease in overall health index scores.
• Among the UTs, Chandigarh ranked first in overall performance, while Dadra and Nagar Haveli improved the most.
• The report has also compared health outcomes of Kerala to that of Argentina or Brazil, with neo-natal mortality rate (NMR) which is the probability of a baby dying in first 28 days of birth, being as low as six per 1,000 live births.

            NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant; Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman