New Delhi, The government has launched a Panchayat Advancement Index , a tool to measure the progress of over 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across India on nine localised Sustainable Development Goals, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj said on Wednesday. Gujarat, Telangana excel as govt releases first Panchayat Advancement Index data As per the PAI data for 2022-23, 699 panchayats, most from Gujarat and Telangana, are in top categories. The PAI captures panchayats’ performance across nine themes of localized SDGs, the ministry said in a statement. These themes include poverty-free and enhanced livelihoods in panchayat, healthy panchayat, child-friendly panchayat, water-sufficient panchayat, clean and green panchayat, panchayat with self-sufficient infrastructure, socially just and secured panchayat, panchayat with good governance and women-friendly panchayat. Under the index, based on scores achieved by different gram panchayats, they are grouped into various categories of performance Achiever , Front Runner , Performer , Aspirant and Beginners . As per the index, while 699 panchayats emerged as Front Runners, 77,298 were Performers, 1,32,392 were Aspirants while 5,896 gram panchayats were at the Beginner …