IndoCarib
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For several years, Bihar has been India's fastest-growing state. In 2013-14 it has been overtaken by another backward state, Madhya Pradesh, which grew 11.08% against the national 4.7%. MP has averaged over 10% in the last three years, even as national rate has plummeted.
Till the 1990s, backward states in the Hindi belt grew slowly, dragging India down. But in the 2000s, new leaders like Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP have converted once-backward states into growth leaders, pulling India up.
Agriculture has been MP's dynamo, averaging over 20% growth for three years. This is fabulous: rarely in history has any region consistently averaged even 10%. Chouhan's irrigation thrust has quadrupled the irrigated area to 28 lakh hectares, completing major Narmada projects. The old power shortages have been replaced by surplus power, facilitating tubewell irrigation.
However, MP's industrial growth rate has been weak, just 4.9% and 2.8% in the last two years. Agricultural growth is bound to slow down. A recent survey by Dreze and Khera placed MP last of 10 states in implementing welfare schemes. Chouhan knows he must diversify the economy, and improve governance. He plans a Global Investors Summit on October 9, to be inaugurated by Narendra Modi.
Digvijay Singh, like all Congress leaders, never viewed economic development as critical in winning elections. Far more important, he believed, was jod-tod, using patronage networks, subsidies and pay-offs to woo key vote banks and break others' vote banks. This was Congress strategy for decades, since it traditionally had the deepest pockets and biggest patronage networks. As the party of Independence, the Congress aimed for a rainbow coalition of all votebanks. But in due course, various regional and caste vote banks developed parties of their own, and beat the Congress in jod-tod.
Digvijay Singh neglected infrastructure and growth for too long. When Chhattisgarh was hived off as a separate state, MP lost most of its mines and power stations, and plunged into a power crisis. The Pay Commission award of 1998 left many states bust, including MP. Digvijay, in his last two years, embarked on building nine major roads, but it was too little, too late. BJP got off to a bad start with two CMs (Uma Bharti and Babulal Gaur) in two years, but then Chouhan came to power and stayed. He started diffidently but, like Nitish, found conditions conducive. The reforms that had created record national growth also created record transfers of central cash to his state, enabling him to invest massively in infrastructure. In Bihar and MP, the resulting fast growth created an even faster growth of local revenue. Growth, revenue and infrastructure spiralled up in a virtuous cycle, and won elections too. Both states are still poor and corrupt, but less so, and now have a future.
Read more at:
‘Bimaru’ Madhya Pradesh now fastest-growing state in India - The Economic Times
Till the 1990s, backward states in the Hindi belt grew slowly, dragging India down. But in the 2000s, new leaders like Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP have converted once-backward states into growth leaders, pulling India up.
Agriculture has been MP's dynamo, averaging over 20% growth for three years. This is fabulous: rarely in history has any region consistently averaged even 10%. Chouhan's irrigation thrust has quadrupled the irrigated area to 28 lakh hectares, completing major Narmada projects. The old power shortages have been replaced by surplus power, facilitating tubewell irrigation.
However, MP's industrial growth rate has been weak, just 4.9% and 2.8% in the last two years. Agricultural growth is bound to slow down. A recent survey by Dreze and Khera placed MP last of 10 states in implementing welfare schemes. Chouhan knows he must diversify the economy, and improve governance. He plans a Global Investors Summit on October 9, to be inaugurated by Narendra Modi.
Digvijay Singh, like all Congress leaders, never viewed economic development as critical in winning elections. Far more important, he believed, was jod-tod, using patronage networks, subsidies and pay-offs to woo key vote banks and break others' vote banks. This was Congress strategy for decades, since it traditionally had the deepest pockets and biggest patronage networks. As the party of Independence, the Congress aimed for a rainbow coalition of all votebanks. But in due course, various regional and caste vote banks developed parties of their own, and beat the Congress in jod-tod.
Digvijay Singh neglected infrastructure and growth for too long. When Chhattisgarh was hived off as a separate state, MP lost most of its mines and power stations, and plunged into a power crisis. The Pay Commission award of 1998 left many states bust, including MP. Digvijay, in his last two years, embarked on building nine major roads, but it was too little, too late. BJP got off to a bad start with two CMs (Uma Bharti and Babulal Gaur) in two years, but then Chouhan came to power and stayed. He started diffidently but, like Nitish, found conditions conducive. The reforms that had created record national growth also created record transfers of central cash to his state, enabling him to invest massively in infrastructure. In Bihar and MP, the resulting fast growth created an even faster growth of local revenue. Growth, revenue and infrastructure spiralled up in a virtuous cycle, and won elections too. Both states are still poor and corrupt, but less so, and now have a future.
Read more at:
‘Bimaru’ Madhya Pradesh now fastest-growing state in India - The Economic Times
