State of progress

Statistics on the macroeconomic progress of States show that while progress has been achieved in some metrics, much remains to be done in others.

A farmer spreads fertilizer in his paddy field on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad July 9, 2014. Asia's third-largest economy has been stuck in its longest rut in a quarter of a century - with growth stuck below 5 percent - while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been dogged by a food price scare in its early weeks. REUTERS/Amit Dave (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS FOOD AGRICULTURE)

Data on the macroeconomic progress of States, published not long ago by the government of India, portray a holistic picture of the quality of life and standard of living across the country by providing numbers under various broad categories such as economy, health, infrastructure, education and so forth. These statistics help the lay reader gauge with a reasonable degree of accuracy the state of affairs in the States and the rate of progress achieved in each of them.

The per capita NSDP [net State domestic product] is a barometer of the health of a State's economy and a measure of the mean income of the people in the State, calculated by adding income from all sources and dividing the total by the total population. According to data from the NITI Aayog, or National Institution for Transforming India Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission, Goa topped the charts for 2013-14 with a per capita NSDP (at constant (2004-05) prices as on February 27) of Rs.1,37,401, up from Rs.1,32,220 in 2012-13, when it also ranked number one. Delhi stood second and these were the only States that had a per capita above Rs.1 lakh. They were followed by Sikkim, Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, the States that clocked a figure above Rs.50,000. At the bottom of the heap were Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, both recording figures below Rs.20,000. States with significant populations, such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, also figured low in the list.

The per capita NSDP of the States at current prices for the same year also had Goa topping the list, followed by Delhi, but the income was above Rs.2 lakh. Sikkim, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala, and Uttarakhand followed the two, with all of them registering figures above Rs.1 lakh.

Data in current prices for a particular year are in the value of the currency for that particular year, but data in constant terms show data for each year in the value of a particular base year (2004-05 in this case). Constant numbers are used to measure the real growth after adjusting for the effects of price inflation.

According to Census of India, 2011 data on the percentage of households using banking services, Himachal Pradesh topped the list with 89.1 per cent, followed by Goa and Uttarakhand. The all-India figure is 58.7 per cent for a population of 24.67 crore households, with 20 States having achieved at least 50 per cent penetration. The worst performers were Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya, while States with significant populations that fared badly included Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar.

The annual growth rate in gross state domestic product (GSDP) for agriculture for 2012-13 for the whole country was 4.70 per cent, with only a handful of States registering higher rates. Madhya Pradesh recorded a surprisingly high rate of 20.32 per cent, while Jharkhand and Sikkim posting growth rates in double digits. The traditional powerhouses such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Kerala all clocked dismal rates, while Gujarat and Rajasthan fared worse. Karnataka was the worst performer among all, clocking a negative growth of 2.93 per cent.

The growth story in industry also presented a bleak picture. The growth rate in GSDP for industry for the entire nation was a paltry 0.4 per cent, but there were a few surprises, the biggest being Kerala leading the pack with 18.41 per cent, followed by Odisha, Sikkim and Nagaland. Gujarat fared well, posting a rate of 7.12 per cent, followed by Madhya Pradesh. The worst performers were Goa, Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh, all of which posted negative rates. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which traditionally figure among the top growers in industry, posted dismal rates of growth.