Karnataka stands 15th in the Land Records and Services Index (N-LRSI 2020) released in Bengaluru on Thursday by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have emerged as the top 5 States in the index. Gujarat occupies the 19th place.
The N-LRSI assesses the extent of digitisation of land records and the quality of these land records in the States and UTs of India.
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Karnataka’s digitisation is at 40.9% while that of Madhya Pradesh is 74.9%.
As per an NCAER statement, the N-LRSI is an integral part of the NCAER Land Policy Initiative (NLPI) launched in 2019 with the aim of filling the gaps in economic research, policy analysis, and systematic data on land.
“Access to land is a critical factor for economic growth and poverty reduction. For government, industry, and citizens to be able to use this asset effectively and to minimise disputes, it is important to have access to reliable land and property records,” said the report.
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According to Dr Shekhar Shah, Director General, NCAER, N-LRSI aims to understand the extent of this progress and existing gaps, and to identify measures to improve land records in each State.
The 2020 N-LRSI is based on data collected over 2019-20 on two aspects of the supply of land records — the extent of digitisation of land records and the quality of these land records. The first component, which aims to assess whether a State has made all its land records digitally available to citizens, looks at three dimensions: the text of the land records (also called the record of rights), the official map associated with a land record (also called cadastral maps), and the property registration process.
NCAER is part of the Property Rights Research Consortium, a multi-institution research consortium.