The economy of West Bengal has reached a very bad state in the last 63 years.
Over the last 63 years, the situation in West Bengal has only worsened. It has not been able to move forward. In fact, this is evidenced by the figures of the government of the country, released by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council in its report. A research paper by EAC-PM states that there has been a continuous decline in the economic performance of West Bengal compared to other states over the last few decades. According to this report written by Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the EAC-PM, the development of the eastern part of the country remains a cause of concern.
The report titled ‘Relative Economic Performance of Indian States: 1960-61 to 2023-24’ says that except West Bengal, all coastal states in the country have clearly outperformed other states. Though Bihar’s relative economic status has stabilised over the past two decades, it is still far behind other states. It needs very rapid growth to reach a milestone on the development ladder. In contrast, Odisha, a traditionally backward state, has registered significant improvement on the growth ladder in recent years.
Understanding Bengal’s plight in numbers
According to the report, West Bengal, which had the third-largest share in the country’s GDP at 10.5 per cent in the year 1960-61, shrank to just 5.6 per cent in the financial year 2023-24. There has been a continuous decline in its economic performance throughout this period. According to the research paper, West Bengal’s per capita income was 127.5 per cent higher than the national average in 1960-61, but its subsequent growth failed to keep pace with the national trends. The result was that West Bengal’s relative per capita income declined to 83.7 per cent in 2023-24. This is less than backward states like Rajasthan and Odisha.
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These states have made the most progress
The report says that the western and southern regions of the country performed much better than other regions during the period 1960-61 to 2023-24. Especially after the process of economic liberalisation initiated in 1991, the southern states have left other states far behind. The five southern states (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) will together account for around 30 per cent of India’s GDP in 2023-24. Moreover, after 1991 the per capita income of all southern states also surpassed the national average. The research paper says that even in northern India, the performance of states like Delhi and Haryana has been better. Delhi had the highest per capita income during the study period.
In 1960, these states were the economic backbone of the country.
This report by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council says that Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were the three major industrial centres of India in the sixties. But later the fortunes of these three started diverging. Maharashtra showed a generally stable performance throughout, while the share of West Bengal kept declining. While Tamil Nadu, after falling for some time, has again gained momentum due to liberalisation. All the data used in this study is based on current prices. The analysis of this data extends to the period 1960-61 to 2023-24.
