FOCUSING ON STATES TO ACHIEVE A VIKSIT BHARAT

THERE has been a growing realisation of the need to accelerate economic growth at the state level to take the Indian economy to a higher growth path. At NITI Aayog's ninth meeting of the governing council on July 27, Narendra Modi observed that states could play an active role in achieving Viksit Bharat by 2047. Even earlier, at NITI Aayog's governing council meeting on June 15, 2019, the PM had appealed to the states to recognise their core competence and work towards making India a $5-trillion economy.

- STHANU R NAIR

Despite this repeated emphasis at the top on the states' economic performance, public discourse on it has been limited. The critical questions of how states have performed over time and which states should be targeted for achieving overall economic goals beg answers. Here is an attempt to address these questions within the timeframe 2011-12 to 2021-22.

Size of the economy

In terms of the size of the economy measured through Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at constant (2011-12) prices, Maharashtra emerged as the largest state economy during 2011-12 to 2021-22 by contributing to 14.38 percent of the GSDP of all states, followed by Tamil Nadu (8.75 percent), Gujarat (8.30 percent), Uttar Pradesh (8.12 percent), Karnataka (7.69 percent), West Bengal (5.46 percent), Rajasthan (4.89 percent), Andhra Pradesh (4.47 percent), Telangana (4.27 percent), and Delhi (4.09 percent). Between them, these states accounted for 70.41 percent of the total.