Haryana Hurricane

The most striking change is in Haryana. Ten years ago, it was at rank 14 and five years ago it was at rank 13. Now, it stands at rank 1, with investment under implementation of Rs 78,500 per capita.

Orissa is also a major gainer, particularly over the last five years. It went from rank 8 to rank 2 over the last five years. While the Indian average for projects under implementation on a per capita basis grew by 93 per cent, Orissa gained by 381 per cent over the last five years to reach Rs 61,811 of investment per capita.

Himachal Pradesh has seen sluggish growth of just 14 per cent compared with five years ago. It has slipped from rank 1 to rank 3, and now has investment of Rs 58,974 per capita.

Gujarat witnessed growth of 85 per cent, which was slightly below the national average growth of 93 per cent, in the last five years. It now stands at rank 4, with investment per capita of Rs 41,585.

Uttarakhand grew a little worse than Gujarat, gaining 73 per cent to go from rank 3 to rank 5. It now has per capita investment under implementation of Rs 34,858.

Jharkhand has got dramatic growth of 331 per cent in the last five years, and has thus gone from rank 14 to rank 6. It now has per capita investment of Rs 33,828. Karnataka gets written about as doing well in IT, but investment in the state is not good. While the Indian average gained 93 per cent over the last five years, Karnataka gained only 59 per cent. It hence went from rank 5 to rank 7. It now has per capita investment under implementation of Rs 30,560.

Andhra Pradesh has had growth of 80 per cent, which is similar to the national average of 93 per cent. With this, it stands at rank 8, with investment of Rs 22,317 per capita.

Tamil Nadu has done shockingly badly in the last five years. In 2002, Tamil Nadu was at rank 4, with investment of Rs 19,981 per capita 8212; this was almost double of the national average. In the last five years, it witnessed growth of only 1 per cent while the national average moved forward by 93 per cent. Today, Tamil Nadu is at investment under implementation of Rs 20,243 per capita, which is just a bit ahead of the national average. It has dropped to rank 9 compared with rank 4.

Maharashtra has also under-performed in the last five years. It got growth of just 50 per cent while the national average grew by 93 per cent. It went from rank 7 to rank 10. It is now just slightly above the national average with investment under implementation of Rs 19,303 per capita.

Jammu and Kashmir has got poor growth of just 22 per cent over the last five years, much below the national average of 93 per cent. With this, it ends up at rank 11 with investment per capita essentially at the national average of Rs 19,091.

The remaining states have investment per capita of below the national average of Rs 18,901 per capita.

Chattisgarh has grown in line with the national average growth and stands at Rs 18,582 of per capita investment under implementation.

Kerala got poor growth of 73 per cent while the national average grew by 93 per cent. It has dropped from rank 10 to rank 13 in the last five years, and now has investment per capita of Rs 18,110.

Punjab has done badly, dropping from rank 11 to rank 14 with growth of just 52 per cent. It now stands at Rs 15,861 per capita, clearly behind the national average of Rs 18,901.

West Bengal has gained dramatically over the last five years, growing by 202 per cent while the national average rose by 93 per cent. Through this, it went up from rank 17 to rank 15. However, in absolute terms, the situation is poor, with investment of Rs 14,467 per capita, which is behind the national average.

The bottom five slots in the ranking are occupied by Assam and the BIMARU states. Of these, Madhya Pradesh and Assam have got credible growth rates of 80 per cent and 87 per cent, both of which are within striking range of the overall average growth of 93 per cent. Uttar Pradesh has done poorly in the last five years, but it managed a growth of 64 per cent.

It is interesting to note that the states of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, all of which are breakaways from BIMARU states, appear to be faring better than the BIMARU states themselves. While BIMARU states are a problem, the number of people who are living in BIMARU states is much lower than it was before these three new states were created.

The worst situation is found in Rajasthan and Bihar. Rajasthan got growth of 10 per cent and Bihar got growth of 3 per cent. Rajasthan now has investment of Rs 5,304 per capita and Bihar is at Rs 2,911 per capita 8212; both of which are vastly below the national average of Rs18,901 per capita.

The writer is senior fellow, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi