Country’s Vaastu seems to be reflected in a report titled “Relative Economic Performance of Indian States: 1960-61 to 2023-24” by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) which clearly shows that western and southern Indian States are more prosperous. 

The report says western and southern States — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka “performed notably better” than the rest of the country in over six decades. Authored by EAC-PM member Sanjeev Sanyal, the paper ‘Relative Economic Performance of Indian States: 1960-61 to 2023-24’ said the development of eastern part of the country remains a concern.

Ancient Indian tradition mentions that south corner, even of the cities flourish more when compared to other periphery.

“Maharashtra and Gujarat have consistently demonstrated strong economic performance over the years. Goa’s relative per capita income has doubled over the period of study. Additionally, the southern States have significantly outpaced others after economic liberalisation, with the five States collectively accounting for approximately 30 per cent of India’s GDP”.

“In the north, States like Delhi and Haryana also stand out. Delhi has one of the highest per capita incomes throughout the study period. The divergent performance of Haryana and Punjab warrants further investigation to understand the underlying policy implications. Punjab’s relative per capita income has declined after 2000s, while Haryana, which was once behind, has surpassed Punjab on both economic indicators. The eastern part of the country remains a concern”, paper noted.

To the much disappointment, West Bengal has experienced a continuous decline in its relative economic performance over several decades.

Although Bihar’s relative position has stabilised in the last two decades, it remains significantly behind other States and requires much faster growth to catch up. Since the 2000s, Bihar’s per capita income growth has slightly exceeded or matched the national average seven, leading to a relative per capita income that has remained relatively stable. Bihar will need to accelerate its economic growth considerably to make progress toward closing this gap , the paper noted.

Conversely, Odisha, traditionally a laggard, has shown marked improvement in recent years. Overall, maritime States have clearly outperformed the other States, with the exception of West Bengal.

“Southern States emerged as top performers in terms of per capita income as well since the 1990s. The group of southern States - including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu-has seen their per capita incomes grow faster than the national average, leading to a significant increase in their relative income levels. In 1990-91, all these southern States had per capita incomes below the national average, resulting in relative per capita incomes of less than 100. However, within the first decade following economic liberalisation, the relative per capita income of each of these States surpassed 100 and continued to rise rapidly thereafter”, it said.

According to the paper, the trajectory of Uttar Pradesh has been similar. The relative per capita income of Uttar Pradesh has stabilised only in last few years after being on a downward trend since 1960s. It was 82.4 percent in 1960-61 for undivided UP. It began to decline and continued to do so even after bifurcation. The relative per capita income for the divided State of Uttar Pradesh was 55.3 per cent in 2000-01, which further declined to 49.4 per cent in 2010-11.

It then flattened out before improving marginally in last few years. In 2023-24, Uttar Pradesh’s per capita income was only 50.8 per cent of the national average, indicating that the average person in the State earns about half of what is typical across India. As in the case of Bihar and Kerala, household incomes may be higher than implied here due to remittances.

While Madhya Pradesh experienced a significant turnaround after 2010, reversing a five-decade decline in relative per capita income, Rajasthan’s relative per capita income increased by 10 percentage points from 1960-61 to 1970-71, before experiencing a decline for the next three decades.

Among small States, Sikkim and Goa have demonstrated remarkable improvements. Sikkim, which had a relative per capita income of just 93 per cent of the national average in 1990-91, has surged to 319 per cent by 2023-24.