Ramit Mehrotra, Pune
As western and southern states have performed better in over six decades from 1960-61 to 2023-24, West Bengal has shown a consistent decline, a working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) reflects. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu contributed to 30% of the country’s GDP in 2023-24, but West Bengal lost its share from 10.5% in 1960-61 to 5.6% in 2023-24.
The paper is titled “Relative Economic Performance of Indian States:1960-61 to 2023-24”, written by Sanjay Sanyal, member of EAC-PM, and Akanksha Arora, joint director of EAC-PM , analyzes the price rates, giving inputs on how each state in India has performed, in response to national and state-centric policies.
The report highlights that the Southern states have significantly added to the country’s GDP and have above average per capita income rates post liberalization. Bengal’s GDP, which used to be 127.5% of the country’s overall, has slipped to 83.7%, following Odisha and Rajasthan. Despite the state’s historical and strategic location, the economic underperformance is drastically low.
Bihar is in a stable condition, but is still behind other states in terms of growth, pace of bridging gaps. Odisha has shown spectacular improvement, putting away the title of ‘slow turtles’. Maharashtra has consecutively remained a top contributor to the country’s economy, irrespective of the marginal decline from 15% to 13.3%. The state’s per capita income has risen to 150.7% of the national average, as of March 2024.
As per the report, the Southern states didn’t perform really well, before the implementation of LPG reforms. Post 1991, the per capita income of all southern states were greater than the country’s comprehensive GDP after 1991.
Delhi and Haryana have outperformed the northern states, in terms of the performance in the northern front. Delhi has had the highest per capita income throughout the period chosen for the study. Punjab’s chunk of GDP and relative per capita income has declined since the introduction of the economic reforms in 1991, unlike the neighboring states. Punjab’s per capita income touched 106.7%, while Haryana’s per capita income is at 176.8% in 2023-24. The GDP contribution was 3.2%, in Punjab, in 1960-61, the share of GDP grew because of the Green Revolution, at 4.2% until 1990-91. It declined further, at 2.4% in 2023-24.
It raises an essential question of sharp focus on agriculture in Punjab, obstructing the transition of development in industrialization.