Madhya Pradesh’s governance trajectory in the SKOCH ecosystem presents a multifaceted picture of progress, sectoral leadership, and untapped potential. Ranked #15 in the SKOCH State of Governance Index 2024, Madhya Pradesh has seen a slight decline from its #10 position in 2023. However, it remains an active and promising participant across categories, continuing to deliver impactful governance outcomes in sectors such as Forest, Ease-of-Doing Business, Police & Safety, Skill Development, and Women & Child Development.
Several case studies exemplify Madhya Pradesh’s governance strengths in 2024:
- In Ease-of-Doing Business, the GIS-Based Land Allotment System by MPIDC revolutionised industrial land allocation by reducing processing time from 59 to 24 days, generating ₹276 crore in revenue, and enabling near real-time approvals through a fully digital interface with 50+ GIS layers. This reflects Madhya Pradesh’s capability to leverage geospatial technology for economic facilitation.
- In Agriculture and Supply Chain Management, the Integrated Fertiliser Storage Software (IFSS) connected over 6,000 stakeholders, ensured real-time inventory tracking, and digitised procurement, reducing leakages and improving fertiliser availability. This initiative addressed longstanding rural connectivity and adoption issues via training and offline functionality—advancing digital transformation in agriculture.
- In Urban and School Governance, Mera School–Smart School turned around education outcomes in Dewas district by installing Smart TVs in 1,665 schools, benefiting 96,000+ students, and enhancing attendance and subject comprehension. Community participation and CSR financing played pivotal roles in overcoming funding and infrastructure gaps.
- In Youth Employment and Skill Development, the flagship Mukhya Mantri Seekho Kamao Yojana (MMSKY) scaled rapidly with 919,000 candidate registrations and 20,499 establishments onboarded. It offered stipends for on-the-job training, providing SCVT certification, with interest from 12 other states indicating replicability and policy transfer potential.
- Women & Child Development was exemplified by the Sashakt Vahini Campaign, which has trained over 10,000 women for police recruitment and placed 151 recruits, combining empowerment with public service participation. It plans to decentralise to Panchayat/Ward levels to improve accessibility and impact.
- Environmental and tourism governance made strides through Project Clean Destination, which institutionalised solid waste management in 30 villages around Panna National Park, and is now expanding to Bandhavgarh, showing a scalable model of Nature Positive Tourism supported by CSR partnerships.
- In Public Safety and Community Engagement, the Blow the Whistle, Call to Action campaign in Narmadapuram improved student attendance by 30 percentage points using a community-led, low-cost model. The initiative successfully mobilised stakeholders and showed how behavioural nudges can produce systemic impact.
- On the environmental conservation front, the Chital Translocation Project protected and enhanced the genetic diversity of the spotted deer population through humane translocation techniques and habitat improvement, reinforcing Madhya Pradesh’s leadership in Forest Governance.
- Administrative modernisation has also been visible in land governance. The Land Acquisition Management System (LAMS) introduced automated, GIS-integrated land acquisition workflows, benefiting over 1 million citizens and speeding up public infrastructure implementation.
These projects collectively reflect governance that is localised, sectorally diverse, and technologically aware. However, Madhya Pradesh’s core challenge remains scale. Unlike states in the top 5, it has yet to systematise district- and municipal-level participation across sectors. Additionally, while its execution quality is strong, the number of projects per sector must increase to yield greater weight in composite rankings.
When evaluated against the six SKOCH indices—Governance, e-Government Infrastructure Index, Finance, Government Transformation, Efficiency, and Development—Madhya Pradesh exhibits mixed performance. On the SKOCH State of e-Government Infrastructure Index, Madhya Pradesh ranks low at 15th among large states, with a normalised EGDI score of 0.326.
It lags behind peers like Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, which have leveraged digital platforms more aggressively for service delivery. While states like Chhattisgarh and Assam have shown gains through initiatives like POSHAN SHIBIR and DBT-based schemes, Madhya Pradesh’s digital service penetration remains limited. To improve its standing, Madhya Pradesh needs to increase its number of digital public services per capita and boost user adoption through proactive awareness and inclusion drives.
The state’s performance on the SKOCH State of Financial Prudence Index places it mid-tier with a fiscal index score of 0.466. Compared to fiscally stronger states like Gujarat (0.589), Maharashtra (0.64), and Odisha (0.643), Madhya Pradesh’s relatively lower score can be attributed to moderate own tax revenue (4.3% of GSDP), high development expenditure (16.2% of GSDP), and average capital outlay.
In the SKOCH State of Government Transformation Index, Madhya Pradesh’s standing is shaped by its performance in categories like Ease-of-Doing Business (ranked #4 nationally) and Police & Safety (ranked #8). The state has made a strong comeback in Labour, Revenue, and Skill Development, showing efforts to improve citizen services and administrative efficiency.
However, the transformation has not yet reached the scale and systemic integration seen in Gujarat or Telangana. A more coordinated approach involving cross-departmental digital governance, capacity-building, and citizen engagement will be essential.
On the SKOCH State of Government Efficiency Index, which combines Governance and Fiscal performance, Madhya Pradesh ranks in the middle of the table. It trails behind Gujarat and Maharashtra, both of whom combine strong fiscal prudence with wide-scale project execution. Efficiency gains can be achieved by scaling well-performing projects, especially those at the district and municipal levels, and reducing administrative fragmentation in project planning and delivery.
The SKOCH State of Development Index—a composite of governance, e-governance, and fiscal indices—places Madhya Pradesh below states like Odisha, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. This signals that despite high-impact outcomes in individual sectors, the overall development architecture in Madhya Pradesh needs better integration and scaling.
It must focus on increasing the number of well-performing projects (especially from departments that currently under-contribute), and ensure these are spread across sectors and geographies to generate sustained, equitable impact.
To regain a top-10 position in 2025, Madhya Pradesh should prioritise platinum and gold-standard initiatives, focus on incremental improvement in ongoing projects, and engage with underrepresented sectors like Urban Development, Environment, and Digital Health. With such strategic alignment, Madhya Pradesh can build on its existing strengths and ascend the governance rankings more decisively.
