E-Paper
Kasganj’s per capita GDP fourth highest in Uttar Pradesh
Which district has the highest per capita GDP after prosperous Noida and Meerut in western Uttar Pradesh? Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Moradabad—right? Wrong!
Which district has the highest per capita GDP after prosperous Noida and Meerut in western Uttar Pradesh? Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Moradabad—right? Wrong!
It’s Kasganj, the district that made headlines after communal riots took place there on January 26 this year, having the fourth highest per capita GDP in the state after Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), Meerut and Lucknow.
The department of economics and statistics has prepared total and per capital GDP of all the 75 districts taking the constant and current prices of 2015-16 into account and treating 2011-12 as the base year. The resultant GDP figures circulated to commissioners and DMs on February 22, 2018 show that at ₹71,294, the per capita GDP of Kasganj is almost equal to that of Lucknow, ₹71,846.
The per capita GDP of Kasganj, a little-known district carved out of Etah in 2008, is next only to Gautam Buddh Nagar that tops the chart at staggering ₹3,68,081 and Meerut with second highest per capita GDP at ₹88,273. Even developed districts like Ghaziabad ( ₹64,907), Kanpur Nagar ( ₹57,308), Aligarh ( ₹47,849) and Agra ( ₹68,795) are all behind Kasganj.
Explaining the probable reasons for Kasganj’s remarkable per capita GDP, director, economics and statistics, AK Pawar said growth in livestock production, especially buffalo meat, rise in minerals and potato production etc during that particular year(2015-16) could have contributed to a high GDP.
“In 2014-15 also, Kasganj was on the sixth position but this time it has found a place among the state’s top five districts with regard to per capita GDP,” he said adding “A higher GDP obviously shows an overall prosperity of a district.”
Further analysis of the GDP figures shows that while western UP comprising 30 districts has the highest per capita GDP at ₹62,386, eastern UP with 27 districts has the lowest GDP at ₹32,360, which is worse than Bundelkhand’s per capita GDP of ₹44,446. Central region with 10 districts under it has a per capital GDP of ₹44,372.
Orai in western region, Rae Bareli in Central region, Banda in Bundelkhand and Bahraich in eastern region were found to have the lowest per capita GDP at ₹31,841, ₹30,993, ₹26394 and ₹21914, respectively.
Further analysis revealed that barring five of the 27 districts, no other district in eastern UP has even half the GDP of Kasganj. The five eastern UP districts whose GDP is more than half of Kasganj’s GDP are Allahabad, Varanasi, Sonbhadra, Sultanpur and Basti.
