Plan panel punctures Modi’s growth model

The panel’s latest socio-economic data gives an insight into the truth of what Modi has been proclaiming — that Gujarat is the fastest growing state, economy-wise, in the country. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 12, 2013, 09:28:19 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Though BJP’s new poll mascot Narendra Modi’s selling of the Gujarat growth model for India looks fine in diatribe, it is not equitable and is tilted in favour of the rich. And this may be the Planning Commission’s message to Modi when he visits Yojana Bhawan on June 18 to finalise Gujarat’s annual plan for 2013-14.

The panel’s latest socio-economic data gives an insight into the truth of what Modi has been proclaiming — that Gujarat is the fastest growing state, economy-wise, in the country. Gujarat had the highest annual state gross domestic product (SGDP) increase (10.13%) among all Indian states between 2004-05 and 2012-13, except Uttarakhand.

The data reveals what Modi does not specify – namely, that distribution of benefits of high growth have not been uniform across different strata of society. In fact, some states with lower economic growth have done better in equitable distribution.

For instance, Odisha which has a much lower revenue base than Gujarat was able to reduce poverty by about 20 percentage points between 2004-05 and 2009-10 as compared to just 8.6% for Gujarat. This was despite Odisha recording average annual economic growth of 7.92 % during the period against Gujarat’s 10.3%.

The Planning Commission’s data also shows that poverty reduction for the deprived, especially scheduled tribes and Muslims in Gujarat has been among the lowest in the country.

Another sign of Modi’s inequitable growth model is high infant and maternal mortality rate — an indication of the health of 70% of the state’s population — in tribal districts.

Even on this front, Madhya Pradesh did better than Gujarat as it was able to reduce infant mortality rate f rom 76 per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 62 in 2010.

Gujarat reduced the rate by just 10 points during the same period.

The panel is likely to express its anguish that tribal districts of Gujarat fare worst on human health indicators.

“Other BJP ruled states such like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have done better in improving health in most backward areas,” said a senior plan panel functionary.

Madhya Pradesh was also able to bring more people out of poverty than Gujarat between 2004-05 and 2009-10 despite lower economic growth, revenue base and per capita income.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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