THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is the lone southern state with a ‘losing share’ in India’s GDP. Others like Karnataka and Telangana have emerged economic powerhouses following economic liberalisation.
A working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) released on Tuesday made the observations. The paper said Kerala’s GDP share rose from 3.4% in 1960-61 to a peak of 4.1% in 2000-01, but has since drifted down to 3.8% in 2023-24.
“It is the only southern state that seems to be losing share,” said the paper titled ‘Relative Economic Performance of Indian States: 1960-61 to 2023-24.’ A notable development following economic liberalisation, said the paper, is the emergence of southern states, especially Karnataka and Telangana, as economic powerhouses.
Karnataka’s share in India’s GDP was 5.4% in 1960-61, and remained almost the same until 1990-91. Post liberalisation, the state saw rapid growth, with its GDP share rising to 6.2% by 2000-01 and reaching 8.2% by 2023-24. It now has the third-largest share of India’s GDP, the paper said.
Undivided Andhra Pradesh (AP+Telangana) now accounts for a 9.7% share, an increase of 2.1 percentage points since 1990-91 with most of the increase in share accounted for by Telangana, said the paper.
‘Southern states top performers since 90s’
The working paper said Tamil Nadu reversed its pre-1991 decline by increasing its share from 7.1% in 1990-91 to 8.9% in 2023-24. Overall, southern states together accounted for 30.6% of India’s GDP in 2023-24.
Since the 1990s, southern states have emerged top performers in terms of per capita income as well, the paper said. The group of southern states, including AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and TN, has seen their per capita incomes grow faster than the national average, leading to a significant increase in their relative income levels, it said.
The relative per capita income in Telangana is now 193.6% of the national average, while Karnataka, TN and Kerala have per capita incomes at 181%, 171%, and 152.5%, respectively, of the national average.
As the per capita NSDP does not include remittances, the number may be an underestimate for Kerala, said the paper authored by EAC-PM Member Sanjeev Sanyal and Aakanksha Arora.
