Gustakhi Maaf Haryana-Pawan Kumar Bansal .
Can Haryana be a developed economy in near future ? By our enlightened reader NK.Bishnoi department of Economic.GJUST,Hisar.
Haryana is a small state located in the northwest India adjacent to national capital New Delhi. The state came into being on November 01, 1966 after bifurcation of Punjab on linguistic basis. Today it has turned 58 years. It’s area is 44,212 km2. The population of Haryana is approx. 3.09 crore in 2024. Right since its inception, Haryana has been doing very well in terms of economic growth. Agriculture in Haryana is well developed. Haryana is the second largest contributor of foodgrain to the national pool. The share of Haryana in total export of basmati in the country is 60 percent. Haryana with only 1.4% of India’s total geographical area produces 15% of the agricultural produce in the country. Overall, agriculture output in Haryana has grown more than seven times since 1966.
Haryana is also known as the milk pail of India. The output of Milk increased from 19.50 lakh tonnes in 1979-80 to around 120 lakh tonnes in the year 2022-23. Overall, the agriculture sector is growing above 5.0 percent since 2014. In fact, in agriculture, output and productivity of crops i.e.; wheat, rice, cotton, mustard etc. has been stagnating (growth rate just 0.5 percent per annum over the last one decade) while output of milk, meat, eggs, mushroom has been growing at a healthy rate. For example, the annual growth rate of milk production in Haryana is 9.3 percent. Haryana possesses 2.1% of the bovine population of the country but contributes more than 5.2% of the nation’s total milk production. Per capita per day milk availability of the State is 1,098 grams against the national average of 459 grams, which is third highest in the Nation. Overall, performance of livestock sector including milk, egg, poultry, meat, fisheries and piggeries helped the small and marginal farmers improve their economic conditions substantially in Haryana. As a consequence, prosperity spread in its rural side The economic structure of rural economy has transformed substantially. In rural Haryana, almost half of the population is engaged in non-agricultural activities.
Industrially, Gurgaon and Faridabad are the major industrial hub. The petrochemical industry in Panipat is also a prospering. However, the traditional industrial clusters Panipat- Handloom and Textile, Ambala-Scientific Instrument, Yamunanagar -Plywood and Paper, Hisar-PVC and steel pipes have not been able to keep pace with the dynamics of the industry and therefore stagnating. Moreover, the focus of government to develop areas in NCR and neglect of other areas in industrial development is a serious cause of concern and need immediate attention.
Gurgaon has also emerged as a globally competitive hub of IT and ITES, tertiary health care and start-ups. Overall, the service sector has been doing very well in Haryana with requisite focus on education, health, trade, transport and tourism, hotels and restaurants etc.
As a consequence, presently Haryana is no more an agriculture economy. It has evolved as industrial and service sector economy. The share of agriculture in state GSDP is around 17.0 percent and around 30 percent of the workforce is dependent on agriculture. The industrial and services sectors in the state since 1980-81 to date have been growing at 6.9 percent and 8.6 percent per annum. Overall, average growth of Haryana over the last 40 years has been a strong 7.0 percent.
Haryana has significantly expanded its educational institutions. Presently, there are 56 universities in Haryana. More importantly, the PLFS data shows that around 43.7 percent of the workforce was educated above either up to secondary level or above. Their share went up to 48.6 in the year 2022-23. However, improving education level of workforce poses a major challenge to the government to create quality employment (regular salaried jobs) near their home town. In fact, given the prevailing salary level in the private sector, youth of the state find displacement cost (cost of leaving the home for job) very high and therefore they prefer unemployment to low salaried jobs away from their home.
One more area of serious concern in the state is the poor status of its women folks. Haryana is ranked at the 14th place among all states of the country in SDG index 2020-21 (SDG India Index Reports by NITI Aayog). The SDG index is the summary of socio-economic indicators. In fact, a closer look reveals that unusually poor condition of womenfolk of the state brings down its overall achievements in social sectors i.e. sex ratio in the state is abysmal 893 in 2020-21 (NFHS-5). Similarly, Infant Mortality Rate (28 per 1000 live birth) and Maternal Mortality Rate (97 per one lakh live birth) is abnormally high. Moreover, prevalence of anaemia in females of the state is above an alarming level of 55 percent. As per the PLFS report 2022-23, the estimated female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in Haryana on usual status for age 15 years and above is only 20.7%.
In substance, over the last 58 years of its existence, Haryana has undergone a substantial transformation in terms of structure of economy, demography, education and health. Haryana has already reached at the middle income level and therefore it is high time to take of the stock of the situation and critically examine the policy regime with a view to prepare the state to become the developed economy in near future.
With consistently strong growth, Haryana with per capita income of US$ 4581 has already joined the Upper Middle Income category as defined by the World bank. In terms of purchasing power parity (more scientific method to compare global economies) the per capita income of Haryana is $14662 PPP in 2022-23. Most of the experts suggest that the per capita income above $ 20,0000 is sufficient to categorise an economy as high income economy. Given the past trend, Haryana will cross $ 20,000 level in next 5 to 7 years. At around 6.6% growth, its PGSDP is likely to be around $ 22935 (PPP) by the year 2028-29 and $ 31570 (PPP) in 2033-34.
The crux of the matter is that within next 5 to 10 years, Haryana is poised to join the rank of High Income category economies comparable to the OCED countries in at least in terms of per capita income. It is noteworthy to mention here that the PCI of Turkey and Greece are $30440 (PPP) and $31,500 (PPP) respectively. Thus, Haryana has the very high probability of attaining the glorious milestone of being a high income economy equivalent to European countries by the year 2033-34.