The geography of unequal growth

The weakness of lower-growth states in manufacturing and services needs to be corrected

Income differences between India’s states have widened significantly in the past 30 years. The geography of the division between the states whose per capita state domestic product (SDP) was above the national average in 2019-20 and those below that is quite clear. The higher-income states are in the south, west, and the northwest and the lower-income ones are in the north, centre, and east (see the map).

In 1990-91, the per capita SDP of the higher-income states was 1.7 times that of the lower-income ones. By 2019-20, this ratio had widened to 2.5 times. In two sectors the difference and the