OdishaPlus Bureau
The Odisha Economic Survey for 2018-19 placed in the assembly shows huge challenges and opportunities of the State’s economy. Odisha has witnessed a high economic growth in the year 2018-19. The real Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has grown at 8.4 percent .The Survey is a big pointer that agriculture is facing a steep decline. Agricultural production continues to be subject to the vagaries of nature. This of course is consistent with national scenario and has impacted the income level of a large number of agrarian families necessitating state intervention.
According to the Survey, the deficit rainfall and severe pest attack is responsible for a decline in food grains production, interventions through farmers’ welfare scheme KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) for sustainable agricultural development has been a game changer to improve agriculture prosperity in the State. This is palpable in the recently held assembly elections.
There is no second opinion that the KALIA scheme paid rich dividends to the ruling BJD. A slew of reforms and interventions have contributed to encouraging the performance in this sector. State’s performance has earned the coveted ‘Krishi Karman’ award at national stage multiple times. As pointed out in the survey, several parts of the State are continually affected by drought necessitating water conservation, micro irrigation and rain-water harvesting. While these priorities are obvious, the irrigation potential already created has to be efficiently used to garner both productivity and crop security. Moreover, the State has to move towards climate – smart agriculture.
Interesting it may seem, while the agriculture and allied sectors are on a downward spiral, two other sectors have done exceedingly well. The contribution of the Mining Sector has really been encouraging with 10.8 percent of GSDP and Manufacturing Sector has also bounced back contributing 18.5 percent to GSDP. Then, a structural shift in the State’s economy has been observed during the recent years.
The Services Sector with 41.6 percent contribution to GSDP has overtaken other sectors as the major driver of the State’s economy followed by the Industries Sector having a contribution of 39.5 percent. This is fascinating. The Survey highlights the policy initiatives of the Government in the realm of public investment in key areas, it also delineates issues and challenges in areas of economic growth as well as enhancement of State’s performance in human and social indices. It tracks major economic behavior, fiscal performance and physical progress in various sectors of State’s economy.
Odisha has not only registered higher rate of growth than many of its peers but also the national average, thereby consistently improving its ranking amongst major States. The per capita income too has notched higher growth rate than most other major States and has maintained gross fiscal deficit within FRBM limits. With the Government’s commitment to pursue the vision of taking the economy to the next level by use of five Ts, it is only to be expected that Odisha will be transformed into a developed State in the coming years.