With Odisha’s economy growing the slowest during the last half decade in the country, including Assam, alarm bells ring louder for the State.
This wakeup notice for the State was revealed by the Economic Survey 2016-17 tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday.
According to the survey, the Central Statistical Organisation has estimated the average growth of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Odisha for the period 2009 - 10 to 2013 - 14 and 2010 - 11 to 2014 - 15 at around 4.42 per cent and 5.13 per cent respectively - which is the lowest among 16 States, including Assam.
More shockers for State are even with the lowest average monthly expenditure by each person (Rs1,002.61 in 2011-12) in rural areas, the share of spending on food items stood at the fourth highest in the country. Odisha is just above West Bengal, Bihar and Assam on this front.
This aspect throws light on the prevailing hand- to- mouth scenario in rural Odisha and the fact to remind here is most of the rural population are either engaged as farm labourers or tilling land as tenants. In such a scenario, the grandiose plan of skilling Odisha could go kaput unless the Government strategizes plan to perk up per capita income.
Significantly, Odisha is the only State among the leading 16 States in the country that has posted a negative growth of (-0.93 per cent) in Per Capita Income in the year 2013 - 14 - the year when cyclone Phailin had struck Odisha. This fact brings to fore the role of farm sector and rural Odisha’s contribution to State’s Net State Domestic Product (NSDP). Interestingly, with no major natural disaster, the Per Capita Income of the State in the following year (2014 - 15) has posted a growth of 6.43 per cent.
Why the State’s economy growth rate was the slowestIJ Sample this. Despite the contribution of the farm sector to the State GSDP ranged from around 19 per cent in 2009 - 10 to around 15 per cent in 2014 - 15, the farm sector could post an average growth rate of around 2.05 per cent for the period of 2009 - 10 to 2014 - 15. In contrast, the average growth rate of industry and services sectors were at around 3.01 per cent and 7.3 per cent respectively - when their respective contribution to State’s GSDP stands at (25 - 33) per cent and (56 - 51 per cent) during the period.
This shows that sectors that contribute nearly 80 per cent of State’s GSDP grew at a meager rate. Result: Per capita income and rural - urban disparity was affected critically as over three-fourth of population depends on a sector that could contribute only around 15 per cent to GSDP; whereas the sector that sustained merely two-fifth of State’s population grew slower to give any spill-on or add-on effect.