VARANASI, July 28 -- : Varanasi has secured the first position in the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) rankings released by the ministry of rural development for June 2026, retaining the top spot after also leading the rankings in May, officials said.

deputy commissioner, NRLM, Pawan Kumar Singh, said the mission is continuously working to make rural women self-reliant through socio-economic upliftment with the support of the district administration.

The ministry of rural development releases the monthly rankings based on several indicators. These include the profiling of self-help groups (SHGs), village organisations (VOs) and cluster level federations (CLFs) on the LoCoS platform, group formation, credit linkage, start-up fund...