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The apex planning body of India, NITI Aayog launched an Aspirational District Programme (ADP) in January 2018. The programme aimed to the quick and effective transformation of 112 (14%) districts of the country. This programme is considered as world's biggest result-based governance initiative having reached up to 250 million people. It is based on a ranking that is done on monthly basis. This ranking is based on 49 KPIs across six broad socio-economic themes.

The study attempts to inquire and assess the progress made by 112 Aspirational Districts under Financial Inclusion, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure theme from the inception of the programme to June 2022 (i.e. 54 months). Instead of ranking districts with delta rank or composite scores, the study divorce from NITI Aayog's methodology of monthly delta ranking. The study explores 8 indicators under the basic infrastructure theme and 16 indicators under the financial inclusion and skill development themes. For this purpose, the study explores the availability of individual household latrines, drinking water, electricity and road connectivity. Districts are also tracked for the number of Internet-connected Gram Panchayats, and panchayats with Common Services. Every district is provided with the target as per national development priority, the study makes an effort to grasp the distance of each district from the national target. This allows researchers to develop a scale Very Far, Far, Near, Very Near, Achieved with descriptive statistics techniques. Juxtaposing the scale with timelines results in a pattern of progress made by these 112 districts.

The study compares all three versions of sustainable development goal (SDG) India index and assess the pace and direction of each State/UT for the attainment of SDGs by 2030. The study is an attempt to scrutinise performance of each indicator of every State and UT of India across 16 SDGs from 2018 to 2020. For this purpose, 13 SDGs with 56 indicators for first version, 16 SDGs with 101 indictors from second version and 115 indicators across 16 SDGs from third version of SDG India Index are investigated. Instead of relining NITI Aayog's indexing methodology, the study uses the same dataset to assess the distance of each state from national target for SDG. Cursorily, it also derives statistical projections of duration required by each State/UT for achieving particular indicator and goal at large. The investigation derives statistical projections of duration required by each State/UT for achieving a particular indicator and goal at large.

Based on the progress made by each State/UT, distance from present conditions are categorised as a Very far (distance less than 0%), Far (distance from 1% to 25%), Near (distance from 26% to 50%), Very Near (distance from 51% to 75%), Achieving target (76%–100%).

The conclusion of the study intends to highlight the benefits and challenges for adopting indexing or ranking approach to monitor the sub-national level progress made for attainment SDGs.