Bucking the national trend, Jharkhand has achieved an impressive rate of 10 per cent annual growth during the last three years ie between 2009-10 and 2012-13 and is expected to keep up growing at the same pace. It was revealed by Jharkhand Economic Survey 2013-14 tabled in the House along with the State’s annual budget.
So, leader of Opposition Arjun Munda should cheer the survey as he had been at the helms of affairs for the major part of the three years; period when the State’s economy looked up after the global slowdown of 2008-2009. Institute for Research and Development, Eastern Regional Centre has extended research support to the survey. However, the decline in poverty level was still to catch up the national level, said the survey. As per Tendulkar Methodology, 36.96 per cent of its population was below the poverty line in 2011-12 as compared to 21.92 per cent for India as a whole. Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, while the poverty in Jharkhand declined by 8.3 per cent, poverty in India declined by 15.3 per cent.
The slow decline in poverty may be attributed to the fact that, according to the survey, the main driver of the impressive growth has been the tertiary sector, especially banking and insurance, communication, storage and public administration. The secondary sector ie manufacturing and construction, though, has also shown recovery but at a slow and unsteady pace.
“Since the growth rate of the service sector does not affect the poverty level to a great extent, the State has not witnessed a sharp decline in the number of poor,” explained an economist. Within the tertiary sector, trade, hotels and restaurants, banking and insurance and public administration have made substantial improvement in their contribution to the GSDP of the State, each of them has improved their share by more than 2 per cent between 2004-05 and 2012-13.
Also, the survey said, there is a sharp contrast between the rural and urban poverty. The incidence of poverty in rural areas was 40.84 per cent, about 15 per cent higher than the national average. Rural poverty in Jharkhand is one of the highest in the country, next only to Chhattisgarh (44.61) and Dadar and Nagar Haveli (62.59). Urban poverty in Jharkhand is 34.83 per cent, almost 11 per cent higher than the national rate. Only Bihar (39.4) and Manipur (38.80) have higher urban poverty ratio than Jharkhand.
According to the survey, the State experienced an average annual growth of 7.67 per cent during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2007-08 to 2011-12). Significantly, like the rest of the country, the State’s economy was also affected by the global slowdown in 2008-09. The real Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the State decline by 1.75 per cent in that year, but it recovered from the next year, the survey said.
The poor performance of the secondary sector was caused by very low growth in manufacturing, especially in registered manufacturing and a negative growth in electricity, gas and water supply. Registered manufacturing sector grew at a mere 0.44 per cent per annum while the value of the output of electricity, gas and water supply at constant prices declined by an annual rate of 7.79 per cent between 2004-05 and 2012-13.
According to the survey, the reason for an almost stagnant share of the primary sector in the GSDP of the State is a very small decline in the share of agriculture and a small rise in mining and quarrying. Share of agriculture after a reaching a peak of 14.54 per cent in 2008-09 declined continuously thereafter to reach 10.34 per cent in 2012-13. Fishing in the State, despite absence of perennial sources of water and recurrent drought, has made rapid progress; it has shown an annual growth rate of 17.21 per cent. The survey concluded that with the improvement in global and national environment and the recovery of the manufacturing sector, this sector is going to make significant contribution to the GSDP of the State and will boost its growth rate.